The Soap Opera That Never Ends
by Rinean
Summary: Starts during the events of X-Men 2. It follows the lives of some of our favorite mutants, along with a few OC's. Lots of action, romance, and mutant powers ahead! Please review! I swear it gets way better after about chapter 12! Skip ahead if you want.
1. Run Away

**X-Men **

**The Soap Opera that Never Ends**

**Author's Note: I do not own the name "X-men" or any of the characters belonging to said "X-Men" and Marvel Comics. However, most of the mutant students in this fic do belong to me: Amera Walker, Danel Walker, Crystal Groves, Kylia Smith, Sonora Thomas, Aykra (belongs to Talia), Khadrim (ditto), Brian Phillips, Thomas Miller, Ayrin Wood, Trent Gaillard, Riley Quartermaine, Sakura Takanawa, Oliver Takanawa, Anya Hino, Vaughn Hino, Keifer Lupin, Harley Simpson, Megan Davis, and Sean Sparrow.**

**I do focus the majority of this story around Amera, so if you don't like that, tough titties. And, I have taken liberties with this story, combining characters from X-Men: Evolution into the movie world. Also with how the dormitories are laid out.**

**Takes place during X2. Will expand into X-Men 3.**

**Please don't be harsh when reviewing! It's not very good, I wrote it a few years back...  
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**Chapter One**

**Run Away**

"Funny," Rogue said sarcastically as she looked down the hallway at the multiples of flyers that had been posted. Someone had thought it would be amusing to draw a picture of Rogue and Bobby kissing, and, seeing as how she cant do that safely, in the picture Bobby's eyes were bugged out and his hair stood on end. Rogue hated it.

"I thought it was," Amera Walker replied, receiving a murderous glare and an elbow in the rib from Rogue.

"Just don't worry about it," Amera's fraternal twin, Danel Walker said, trying to calm their friend down. The three girls began the trek to their dorm on the other side of the mansion.

"I'll try not to kill the person when I find them," Rogue said with a growl.

They reached their room in a couple of minutes, Rogue pulling down the flyer that had been taped to their door and ripping it to bits. Their room was just like the others, in the furniture department at least, with one bed on each of the four walls. At the head of each bed was a desk that held I-Mac computers and at the foot, a dresser. (I said I took liberties! The bedroom is one of them!) Each of the girls had their own area this way, which they could decorate any way they choose. Above Amera's bed were posters of heavy metal and punk bands, such as Korn, Marilyn Manson, My Chemical Romance, and Good Charlotte, and she had a huge collection of Living Dead Dolls on top of her desk. Danel's taste was a little more normal you might say, since she had her posters of Simple Plan and Sum 41 actually straight, and her desk was decked with stuffed animals and the punk rock series of Bratz dolls. Rogue was a little bit of both of them in personality, but her collection of posters and things were more indie-style bands like the Ataris and All American Rejects, and she had porcelain dolls atop her desk. Kitty Pryde was is the room already, and her portion looked like a prep student's would, with pictures of home, boy bands, and her pet dog, Woofles.

Amera immediately flopped onto her bed, narrowly missing her guitar that was in its stand next to her desk, and put headphones over her ears, playing Green Day's "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". Rogue sat on her bed and began pulling homework out of her bag that she hadn't done the day before. They would have had to turn it in today if all the teachers weren't leaving town. They were being left with Logan, a good friend and savior of Rogue's. "I see you saw that picture," Kitty giggled when she noticed Rogue's huffiness. "It wasn't so bad, was it?"

"I'm going to kill them," Rogue said, then started on her physics assignment.

"Don't say that, some of the younger students are afraid of you as it is," Danel frowned.

"Grr," Rogue said playfully and returned to her work.

Amera started rustling through her sketchbook that was filled with anime and manga doodles. She closed her eyes for a moment as she kissed a picture she had drawn of Hatsuharu Sohma from Fruits Basket, and a loose sheet of paper fluttered out of the notebook to the floor without her noticing. Danel picked it up and her face turned red, then she sputtered out some laughter. "Rogue, you might want to see this," she said, handing it to the aforementioned girl.

Rogue took it and her face dropped. It was the dreaded picture. She pursed her lips and hurled a pillow as hard as she could at Amera's head. "What the!" Amera cried then sat up instantly. "What was that for!?"

"_You _drew this!" Rogue said, waving the picture at her.

Amera snorted. "You think I drew it? Someone gave me the original after those flyers were already copied!"

"Liar," Rogue said, crossing her arms and looking at the ceiling. "If you're telling the truth, who drew it?"

"I… I can't tell you," Amera said, blushing furiously.

"I know that look," Kitty said, pointing and suppressing a laugh. "It's obviously some boy that Amera likes."

"No, no, not at all!" Amera said, shaking her hands in front of her.

Rogue got up and took one of the Dead Dolls off of Amera's shelf. "Tell or else I will kill the Dead Doll by means of microwave."

Amera bowed her head in defeat. "Okay, okay, put the doll back…" Rogue slowly put the doll back on the shelf. "Piotr did it, alright? Let the Dead Doll live!"

"Hmm…" Rogue wandered back to her bed and picked up her books, but didn't go back to work. "Now to think of some form of payback…"

"Payback for what?" Bobby Drake asked from the doorway. He came to get Rogue and Danel for their daily game of foosball with John Allerdyce in the recreation room. Amera sighed in relief and put her headphones back on, then lay back and kicked her heels up on top of the dresser.

"The flyers that it turns out Piotr drew," Danel said as she pulled her hair into a ponytail.

"Eh, I thought they were funny," Bobby said with a shrug.

"What was funny?" John asked as he appeared next to Bobby in the doorway.

"That picture that's up all over school," Bobby replied.

"Oh yeah, me too-" John started, but he received a glare from Rogue and he stopped short. "Uh, let's go, shall we? We don't want to kick Kylia and Jaime off the foosball again, do we?"

"Right," Danel said, taking his hand as Rogue took Bobby's. The two girls both wore gloves, not allowing either of them skin contact with the boys they loved so as to not hurt them with their powers. Rogue's powers took the very life force of anybody she touched, and in the case of a mutant she temporarily gained the use of their powers, and Danel possessed people with a touch, so in a way they were the same. Both of them suffered greatly since they couldn't touch their boyfriends at all. They walked, hand in hand, downstairs.

Sonora Thomas walked in seconds after the others had left. Her brightly colored faerie's wings stuck out behind her as she entered. She took the liberty to fly over to Rogue's bed and sat serenely on the edge of it. "Since we didn't have classes today, anyone want to go train?"

"Nope, not at all," Amera said as she waved her hand at a bottle of water and it floated through the air towards her. It wasn't that she had telekinesis, it was the water itself, and she could control it. She called her ability "hydrokinesis," which nobody else at the institute had.

"Lazy," Kitty laughed.

"You don't want to either," Amera said, sticking out her tongue at her roommate.

"True," Kitty replied.

"Hello ladies," Oliver Takanawa appeared at the door now, shirt half open and revealing his hairless chest. That was gorgeous in and of itself, but then Piotr, who was taller and buffer, showed up behind him wearing no shirt at all. "Anyone want to train with me?"

"Oh, thanks for showing me up," Oliver pouted and slouched away to his room.

"Anytime," Piotr called after him. "So, any takers?"

Amera had been preoccupied with staring at his chiseled abs, so she didn't really hear what he was saying. "Um, uh, yeah! I'll go!" Sonora and Kitty exchanged glances with a grin then all of them left the room.

* * *

Everyone in the Institute awoke to a shrill scream that echoed everywhere, and all of them covered their ears in pain. It was obviously Siren, but she only screamed in dangerous situations. Her scream ended abruptly, allowing everyone to get up. Suddenly, before Amera or her roommates could get out of bed, two men in camouflage and spy-looking gear came bounding through the door, guns pointed at the girls. Kitty's first instinct was to make herself immaterial and "phase" through the bed and floor to the story below, and Amera's first instinct was to turn her molecules into water and, in a puddle, slide out of the door. Rogue ran as fast as she could and somehow avoided getting shot, and Danel touched a guy on the face with her bare hand, and, being in his body, shot the other man with what looked like tranquilizer darts. He fell to the floor unconscious as Danel left his body and rushed out the door. "What the hell is going on!?" Amera said, solidifying herself as Danel neared her.

"Just run!" Danel said as they joined a herd of students.

Oliver couldn't exactly do anything to save himself as a man burst into his dormitory, so since his power was speed he just ran out the door. The tranquilizer darts just barely missed him and ricocheted off of Piotr's metal frame just as Piotr turned his skin into a strong armor. He made his way out the door behind Oliver and could hear Logan close by, so he headed that way. Khadrim, the other boy in their dorm, made to follow Piotr through the mass of younger kids, but one stray tranquilizer hit him in the neck. He lost control over his powers and his right arm turned into a sword against his will. "Khadrim!" Kitty yelled when she saw that Khadrim was out of it as she came out of a wall. She grabbed his left arm and phased both of them through the next wall.

Vaughn Hino and his cousin Harley Simpson were the only ones in another hall and were cornered by one of the camouflaged men. "Don't make me do this…" Vaughn urged the soldier as he backed away, making sure Harley stayed behind him. He held his hand out toward the guy, and he began to wheeze, choke, then he passed out on the ground.

"Vaughn!" Harley said as he ushered her away.

"Don't worry, he's still alive," Vaughn said as he pulled her away.

"No, that's not what I mean!" Harley corrected. "We can't go this way…" Images had filled her mind of government helicopters taking some of the students away to some unknown place.

"Where's Anya?" Vaughn asked as they ran down another hallway. He couldn't help but worry about his sister.

Anya was in trouble. She and Aykra, one of her roommates, were cornered by three men, their only protection being Aykra's shield of psyonics and fire, but she couldn't hold it up forever. Anya was schizophrenic, and with her ability to raise demons from hell, her dark side was getting nearer and nearer to cracking and doing so. At the last second, Aykra shot out a strong blast of telekinesis knocking the men down and trapped them in a locked closet.

Others got out with much less trouble, since their powers made escape simple. Crystal Groves made herself invisible and walked through the walls and made her way to the shelter. Sonora had simply cast an illusion spell on the attackers so they could not see her as she escaped. Riley Quartermaine blended into walls and other surroundings to make her way out of the mansion, and Ayrin Wood had frozen time temporarily to make her escape.

"Piotr!" Amera called when she saw him leading a group of younger students to one of the secret escape passages. He hit the wall to open the passage and ushered the smaller kids in as Logan approached. Amera and Danel ducked into the passage as Logan handed Piotr a small, unconscious boy.

"I can help you," Piotr said as Logan turned to fight.

"Help them," Logan replied and stalked away.

Piotr groaned, then carried the boy into the passage, where he just noticed Amera for the first time. "Thank God you're okay," he said with a sigh and closed the door before they headed down the chilly tunnel.

"What?" Amera asked, having not heard him.

"I mean… nothing, let's just get out of here."

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**I wrote this a few years ago, and never posted it. So now it's the time!! Please R&R!! **


	2. Where Do I Hide

**Chapter Two**

**Where Do I Hide**

About an hour after the attack, students were beginning to calm down, especially the younger ones. The students who hadn't disappeared had made their way to the hidden underground shelter. Amera, Piotr and Danel had looked and looked through the many students, but there was no sign of Rogue, Bobby, or John. None of the teachers or Logan had returned either. A few other students were missing as well.

"Where could he be?" Danel worried. She sat on one of the counters in the small and minimal kitchen and wondered where John could be. Did he get out with Logan? Or did he get taken away?

"He's fine, just believe that," Oliver said from his place leaning against the fridge just before running to separate two bickering kids.

"He's right, Danel," Kitty said with a small smile. "Jubilee's fine too, I know it…" She looked away then, wondering if her best friend really was okay.

Amera and Piotr had gone outside once the kids started settling down inside the shelter to a gazebo that was about twenty yards away from the platform that lowered into the shelter. The sky was clear, and through the trees they could just make out the stars. "It's so pretty…" Amera said softly.

"Yeah," Piotr said, though he wasn't looking at the stars at all.

Seconds passed and they looked into each other's eyes and leaned towards each other…. Then a loud thump broke them apart. Someone had stumbled through the bushes and had collapsed in front of them on the wooden floor of the gazebo. He had long black hair and white bangs that reached to his lower back, and he was covered in bruises and deep cuts. Blood covered him everywhere. "Holy-!" Amera said, jumping immediately to the side of the injured boy. "Let's get him inside!"

Inside the shelter, most of the kids were crowded around the single television and Xbox playing Halo. Khadrim, as always, sat alone in the back of the room with his only friend and kindred spirit, Aykra. He didn't like too many people to be around him, and down here there wasn't exactly extra space, since there was about a hundred kids. Kylia Smith, a girl that could speak every language and speak to animals, had a schoolgirl crush on Khadrim. Mysterious, silent boys like him piqued her interest. And she had never once seen him smile, let alone laugh.

A muffled call could be heard from the entrance hall. Khadrim, Kylia, and Kylia's cousins Tabitha Smith and Jaime Madrox, were the only ones who heard the urgent calls, and they rushed in to see Amera and Piotr carrying a very bloody boy between them. "What happened?" Kylia asked, and at the same moment Jaime asked, "Who's that?"

"We don't know," Piotr answered as the others helped pick up the boy so he wasn't being dragged along the ground. They headed into the infirmary and lay him on the cold steel examination table. "You and you," Piotr said, pointing at Khadrim and Kylia, "stay here and watch him." Jaime and Tabitha retreated back into the room with the other students.

Khadrim shrugged and Kylia merely obeyed as the two of them sat in metal chairs along one wall that were just as cold as the table. A long night lay ahead of them.

Meanwhile, a bunch of the other students who weren't blasting each other to death had started a game of "Actors". For those of you who aren't familiar with this game, let me explain. One person states the name of an actor or actress, and the following person has to say the name of another one that starts with the first letter of the last name. "Johnny Depp," Amara Aquilla said over the loud laser noises from the television.

"Drew Barrymore," Brian Phillips said as he used his powers to stretch his arm into the kitchen and get a cookie for himself.

"Bam Margera," Riley said simply.

"Bam Margera isn't an actor!" Sakura Takanawa, Oliver's sister, replied.

"That's right, he isn't!" Megan Davis said, scratching her ear (which was on her head like a cat's) with her left foot.

"So? He's hot, he should count," Riley retorted in her normal monotone speech.

"'Bed' starts with 'B'," Sonora said, hinting that they should all try getting some sleep. Many of the younger students complained, but they started to clear the room anyway. The kids separated, boys and girls, into the two large sleeping areas.

Amera and Piotr walked in before everyone had cleared out. One boy, however, who shouldn't really have been at the institute at all, was heading to the girls' dormitory. He was Bam Margera, and it seemed like he was mocking himself. "Ooh, I'm Bam Margera!" he said in a singsong voice, taunting Riley. Riley groaned and pushed Bam into the wall and he turned into Sakura, who was laughing as she disappeared into the room.

Amera sighed and sunk onto the only couch in the entire room. "I'll take this watch," she said while trying and failing to suppress a yawn.

Piotr yanked her up off of the couch. "No, go to bed, I can take care of watching everyone."

"But-"

"No buts." He smiled at her. "Go get some sleep, you look horrific."

"I can sleep out here," Amera protested.

"Oh, can you now?" Piotr said with an eyebrow raised. "Where, exactly? Because I believe I will be taking the couch," he said as he eased down onto the sofa.

"Then I'll sleep in the chair," Amera said stubbornly.

"I don't think so," he said as he grabbed Amera's arm and stood up. Then, without a word, he kissed her. "Go to bed."

Amera was beet red. "Fine, you win," she said. "But just because you're so cute."

"Naturally."

* * *

"So…" Kylia said to break the monotonous silence. "Where do you think Professor X went?"

"Don't know," was Khadrim's short response. Silence resumed.

"Okay, fine, if I can't get you to talk, I'll just shut up. It seems like such a good idea since that's all you do!" Kylia said in one breath, then with a huff, sat back in her chair forcefully.

Khadrim stared at her with his eyes wide, and then after a moment a grin crossed his face. "You're a really stubborn girl."

"It comes with the territory," Kylia said with a smile.

"Only child?"

"Yeah," she said. "What about you?"

"Orphaned," Khadrim stated with a sad look in his eye. He didn't like thinking about the fact that he had killed his own parents.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Kylia looked at the floor. Open mouth, insert foot… She wanted to change the subject to something more pleasant, but he beat her to it.

"Like music?"

"Yeah. I mean, I don't like hard rock like Metallica and such, I like more of the, uh, boy bands… I love N'Sync…" She was blushing furiously as Khadrim started laughing. But they were having fun. Minutes passed as the subject changed again to video games.

"My favorite game is Kingdom Hearts-" Kylia said, but nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard something. Someone was groaning.


	3. Girls and Boys

NOTES FROM AUTHOR: I wrote chapters 1-14 before X-Men three came out, so there are mistakes that I didn't catch until now...

In chapter two, I originally had one of my characters (Kylia Smith) related to a young Jaime Madrox. However, since he was older and in the third film, I am changing this to Trent Marcus. (Also an edit to Trent, whose last name was originally Gaillard.)

Sorry I didn't catch it before I posted. I'm editing them all before I post them now.

* * *

**Chapter Three**

**Girls and Boys**

"Go get Piotr," Khadrim said as he went to the side of the unconscious boy. Kylia ran to oblige, as Khadrim watched the boy who looked like he was suffering. He stood, looking at him, not knowing what to do to help. He and Kylia had already bandaged the poor guy, and there was nothing he could do about bad dreams. As he stood there, wondering what to do, he was suddenly thrown backwards into the metal chairs by the door by an invisible force. He stumbled into the hall so he wouldn't get hurled into the wall again.

"What's going on?" Piotr asked as he and Kylia rejoined Khadrim.

"I just found out the guy's a mutant like us," he replied, rubbing his shoulder where it had hit the wall. "He threw me into the wall with some really strong telekinetics."

Then a yelp of pain could be heard from inside the infirmary. The three rushed back inside to find the boy on his knees, clutching his head like he had a horrific migraine. Suddenly, he burst into flames. The heat was so intense that Piotr pushed the others back out into the hallway to keep them safe. _"Help me!"_ He looked back at the boy when he heard a voice in his head. It had to be the boy, but how was he supposed to help him?

* * *

John found himself worrying about his girlfriend about halfway to Bobby's house in Boston. He had been so stupid, how could he not know if she was okay or if she had been captured by those government bastards? Bobby was lucky, he knew his girl was safe since she was right there in the front seat of Cyclops' car. "I should have looked for her," John said softly so that only Bobby could hear.

"Who, Danel?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah, Danel, who did you think I meant, the queen of Sheba?" John retorted. "You went looking for Rogue, I should have gone looking for Danel."

"You would have gotten taken away by those people," Bobby said. "I'll bet Danel's fine."

"Easy for you to say when your girlfriend is sitting in the freaking car with you," John replied coldly, then stopped talking and resigned himself to looking out the window.

"Can we _please_ turn on the radio?" Bobby said, rubbing his temples.

* * *

Aykra had just gotten to sleep when she was shook awake again by Kylia. "Aykra, we need you in the infirmary!" Aykra got up and followed the smaller girl to the hall outside of the hospital wing.

"What's up?" she asked as she noticed the heat in the hall.

"We brought an injured boy here a while ago and now he's awake," Piotr explained. "We know so far that he has telepathy, telekinesis, and pyrokinesis, as you also have." Piotr sighed. "We think that if you go talk to him, he'll calm down."

"Calm him down?"

"I think his pyrokinesis just manifested a minute ago while I was in there," Piotr answered. "And he's scared."

Aykra looked at the others and sighed. "Okay," she said before going into the infirmary alone. She projected a psyonic shield to protect herself from the heat. He was still blazing, and he was looking at her with fear in his eyes. "I'm here to help," she told him. "My name is Aykra. I want to help you calm down."

"Calm down?" he cried. "Calm down? How can I calm down when my entire body is on fire?"

Aykra looked at him, then concentrated on her hand as she lifted it to eye level. Her hand burst into flame just as the boy was on fire. "It happened to me too, about three years ago," she explained. "I had been getting terrible headaches for weeks, and then one night, I burst in to uncontrollable flames. They didn't go away until my parents talked me into calming down. I came here and Professor Xavier has been teaching me to control it."

"I can control this?" he said as he slowly started to calm down. "I can barely control my telepathy and telekinesis, and now I have this to worry about?"

"I have the same gifts as you," she said and held out her hand toward him. "I want to help you."

He took a few more minutes to calm down, but when he did, the flames disappeared and he was left sweating profusely on the table. "Thank you," he panted.

"No problem," Aykra said.

"I'm Pierce," the boy said as he shook Aykra's hand.

"Come on," she said as she helped him stand. "I want you to meet the people who saved you."

* * *

Hours had passed in Boston, and in those hours, Bobby's parents discovered the truth about their son being a mutant, his brother had called the cops and lied to get the mutants arrested, and now the four from the Institute were on the front porch surrounded by cops. Logan's instincts were that in dangerous situations, he would use the adamantium claws that had been surgically grafted to his skeleton.

"Put the knives down!" a police officer called to him. Logan looked at the man to his right. "I said put the knives down!"

"I can't," Logan said, then turned to the man. "Look." He lifted his hand and the claws were pointed at the police officer. Taking no chances, the officer shot Logan in the forehead. Rogue screamed at the sound of the gunshot.

"Get down on the ground!" a police officer called. Bobby lowered to the ground on one side of John, as Rogue lowered to the ground on the other side. She stared at the lifeless body of Logan as she got to the floor. "Get down on the ground, kid!"

John wouldn't listen. His stress level was maxed out, and he couldn't take anymore bullshit. He would _not_ give in. "You know all those dangerous mutants you hear about on the news?" he asked the police scattered through the yard as he took his shark-painted lighter from his pocket. "I'm the worst one," he said and lit the lighter. He pulled the flame into his palm and created a fireball, which he then threw into a patrol car. The fire kept blazing in a blur as like a mad-man he attacked the police relentlessly. Rogue and Bobby watched in horror as he destroyed plants and police cars with a wicked smile plastered to his face. Rogue had to stop him. She pulled off one of the gloves that Bobby had given her to use and wrapped her hand around John's ankle.

The fire immediately stopped in his hand as Rogue began to drain his abilities. She held out her hand toward the lawn and the fires began to die out, all the while John getting weaker and weaker the longer she held on. Then the X-Jet appeared and landed just as Logan was coming to and the bullet, which had been stopped at the skull because of the adamantium plating, was being pushed from his head by his rapid healing factor. The four of them walked to the X-Jet, Logan startling the police officer that had shot him on the way.

* * *

"I think he's cute," Ayrin said about the boy all of them had noticed when they got up that morning.

"Not as cute as Bam," Riley countered.

"You are a crazed fanatic. That new boy is hot!" Sakura teased.

Across the room, seated on the floor, a bitter Oliver was hearing all the fuss the girls were making over Pierce. "He's a person, not something to ogle at," he groaned. He wanted to be in Pierce's position. Those girls were ready to jump his bones the next time they saw Pierce, and Oliver was jealous.

"The girls do have a point, he is hot," Thomas Miller said from beside him.

"Hello, boyfriend here!" Ray Crisp said, hitting his boyfriend's knee lightly.

Oliver rolled his eyes. He looked over at Amera and his heart skipped a beat. He'd had his eye on her for quite some time, but he would never, ever have the courage to ask her out. She sat on the floor in their little group too, as well as Danel, even though most of the girls their age were sitting on the couch and around the TV watching DeGrassi. The boys, even the gay ones, hated that show, and so did the twins, so they sat as far away from it as possible. However, the show had ended nearly an hour ago, and the boys group was sitting on the floor still, waiting their turn. They had to get the television soon since True Blood was coming on.

"Once you girls are finished gossiping about Pierce, can we please have the couch? True Blood starts in like ten minutes!" Amera yelled over the noise. The girls still chattered away. Piotr laughed at how desperate she seemed. "What? I have to get my weekly fix of Jason!"

Piotr raised an eyebrow at her. "What about me?"

"What about you? Hmm, let me think. You haven't asked me to be your girlfriend yet, so I figured famous people who I have no plausible chance with were free game." Amera grinned and stuck her tongue out. "And even if I was your girlfriend, Jason Stackhouse is way too hot to be ignored."

"He's hotter than me?" Piotr joked, pretending he was smug about how gorgeous he was.

"Not quite," she answered. "But he's on TV, so that boosts his hotness level." She shrugged. "It's all covered in 'The Boys' Handbook to the World of Crazy Teenage Girls.'"

"Ha ha," Piotr said sarcastically and rolled his eyes. "So if I asked you to be my girlfriend, would you at least stop looking at his ass? I've seen you do it."

She blushed a little. "Unless absolutely unavoidable. He is naked quite a lot."

"That can be forgiven," Piotr said with a smile, then he looked directly into her eyes. "Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Yes I will, you likey?" she said, then with a smile on her face, kissed him. Then, like the insane little monkey she is, she ran and jumped over the back of the couch onto Riley, Sakura, and Megan's laps and stole the remote from Kylia's grasp. "It's our turn! Move it!"

Ray stared in shock after her. "Her insanity makes me glad I'm gay."

"She's awesome…" Oliver said, watching her every move.

"Knock it off," Piotr said as he elbowed Oliver.

"Oh come on, I've liked her for over a year, longer than you!" Oliver fought.

"And you never asked her out. Either that or she ignored your advances." Piotr replied.

Vaughn snorted. "'Ignored your advances'? Who talks like that?" The other guys laughed.

"Helloooo?" Amera called across the room as the other girls finally disappeared into the girls' room. "Guys! Couch, TV, True Blood. Now."

As the guys were heading over to the couch, Keifer came out of the boys' bathroom. "Done!" he announced to everyone.

"Thank you for announcing your bowel movements to the entire school, we appreciate it greatly!" Oliver said back.

"Ha ha," Keifer groaned. "I meant that I am done with Pierce's fabulous transformation from geek to chic."

"Uh, yeah," Thomas said as he sat on the floor in front of a chair between Ray's legs. "Are we still pretending he's not gay?" he asked to those who were sitting near him.

Keifer couldn't hear that and went along with the presentation. "Pierce, don't be embarrassed, come on out," he called into the bathroom.

Amera and Danel's jaws dropped. When Pierce emerged from the bathroom, he looked amazing; his hair was no longer down his back but it was short and layered, reminding Amera of Rui Hanazawa from Hana yori Dango (Boys over Flowers). However, Amera and Danel both had strange feelings about the newcomer, a feeling that wouldn't go away, and they had no idea what it meant.


	4. Head Like A Hole

**Chapter Four**

**Head Like A Hole**

"Are you wearing vanilla scented spray?" Piotr asked Amera as they sat on the floor in their usual spot eating the delicious lasagna that Khadrim had made. (Yes, the tall silent albino boy really whips up some good grub.)

Amera's favorite food in the world was lasagna, so she couldn't answer right away because she had a bite in her mouth. Once she swallowed, she looked at Piotr with a grin and said, "Yes I am, you likey?"

"Yes I do likey," Piotr replied, then leaned over and gave her Eskimo kisses.

"God, get a room," Oliver groaned from his place on the couch. He had somehow managed to snag the area for a few of them.

Danel was sitting next to him. "Jealous much?"

"I'm not jealous," Oliver said non-convincingly.

"Didn't you admit to everyone yesterday that you liked her?" Vaughn asked from the floor.

"Well, yeah, I guess…" Oliver said, retreating into his lasagna.

"Poor guy," Sakura said, but she didn't really mean it since she was his sister and sisters are very apathetic to their older brother's problems.

After another half an hour and everything from dinner had been cleaned up, the video game freaks had taken over the television yet again. The older students sat back and watched the younger ones from the kitchen. "We should go see if those people are gone and we can go back to the mansion," Amera suggested.

"Yeah, it's way crowded in here, and there's only a handful of us to keep an eye on the little kids," Aykra said.

"Well, why don't you and Khadrim stay here and keep everything under control, while me and Amera go check out the school?" Piotr said.

"I'll go too," Pierce said as he entered the kitchen. Amera looked away and down at the ground, not knowing why she felt so weird around him. But Piotr agreed, and soon the three of them were leaving the shelter.

Ayrin realized something just as the entourage was leaving. "Hey, has anyone seen Ray and Thomas?"

"Nope," "Didn't see them at dinner," and "No idea," were the answers given by various students. A moment passed in silence, then in a collective realization, all of the older teenagers shuddered in disgust. The only way Ray and Thomas would skip a meal was if they were, uh, busy. The younger students didn't understand, so they just shrugged and went back to whatever they had been doing.

The sunlight was orange and broke through the trees during the sunset as the trio made the trek to the mansion. To make conversation, Piotr asked," So Pierce, what kind of stuff are you into?"

He walked along in silence for a moment before answering. "I don't know. I don't even know who I am, or if Pierce is even my name." He paused as the others took in this information in shock. "I woke up a few days ago in a cold underground building. I think it was some sort of government base. My head was hurting so bad, I can still almost feel it. Suddenly, it became too much for me to handle and I screamed in pain. Some people ran in to try to tie me down, but then somehow I knocked them down with my mind. And it kept happening, as I ran to escape, these bursts of energy cracked the walls and hurled objects and people away from me. But I got out, and when I had calmed down I could control this telekinesis. I didn't know who I was, so I decided on the name Pierce in case people asked. Then I started hitchhiking. I ended up in New York, but I saw police and I started running blindly, without caring where I ended up. I ran into the woods eventually, where I was attacked by a bunch of wolves. That's how I got so scratched up. When I finally fought them off, I walked as far as I could until I passed out."

"But your scratches are all gone now," Amera said, having forgotten that he had been bloody when they found him.

"Yeah, I figured I must have regenerative powers too," Pierce said, staring straight ahead. They could see the mansion through the trees now.

"You're an amazing person, Pierce," Piotr said, still awed by what one person could do.

"I don't know about that," Pierce said, then looked at the other two with a smile. "I could turn out to be a real asshole. You never know." Finally they reached the mansion, and Pierce looked up at it in awe of how large it was. "So, this is the famous Xavier Institute."

"Yeah, this is where we call home," Amera said, opening the glass paneled French doors in the rear. They hadn't really noticed the damage that the school had taken while they were running to safety, but now they took it all in. It wasn't too horrible, but there was still a lot of work to be done. Some banisters needed repairs, a few hallways in the boys' dorms had some water damage. (From what, Amera didn't know.) "Doesn't look too bad," Amera said as they wandered the halls, looking at how much damage had been done in individual dorms. "I think we can bring everyone back here tomorrow morning." She didn't see very much damage to people's personal items, so she was smiling widely, that is until the three of them reached her dorm.

Her guitar had been knocked over and broken, and some of her Dead Dolls and mangas had been shook off of the top of the desk and been trampled. "Dammit." She said as she fought the tears that stung her eyes. Her hard earned money had gone into that stuff back when she was living at home, and her mother had started the Dead Doll collection with one of the now destroyed dolls. She fell to her knees next to all of her destroyed belongings and picked up the doll from her mother, trying in vain to put it back together. Piotr kneeled beside her and wrapped his arms around her, and she leaned into his chest and began to cry hot tears. "I worked in a fucking hellhole of a McDonalds for an entire semester three years ago for that guitar and now it's trashed!"

Piotr stroked her hair. "Shh," he whispered. "It'll be okay."

Pierce stood at the doorway and watched the scene, then left the room so that the couple could have some privacy. Some of the other students had told him about what had happened earlier that day to explain why so many kids were living underground. As he was walking back towards the back door, something happened to him. It felt like when his powers were awakening back in that secret base. His head began to hurt severely, but this time he got sick to his stomach. It was like his insides were churning, then he felt like he was burning up with a high fever. His head began to feel as though someone had stuck a fork in his brain and was scrambling it around. He fell to the ground and curled into the fetal position. What the hell was happening to him? He barely heard someone scream over the throbbing in his ears. It had to be Amera, and she sounded like she was in pain as well. So, it wasn't just another manifestation of powers, it was happening to more than just him. But how? How many? And why?

Back in the shelter, all of the other kids were going through the same torment. Aykra was crouched on the ground, clutching her head, and Khadrim was right next to her, writhing on his side. "Khadrim!" she cried over the moaning from many other students.

He looked over at her in a great deal of pain, and reached out his hand. He grabbed her hand and pulled himself closer to her. "We'll…we'll be okay," he struggled to say, never letting go of her hand.

After many long minutes of all the mutants writhing in pain, it ended as suddenly as it had started. The students in the shelter got themselves up and helped others get up. Khadrim stood and helped Aykra to her feet. He looked into her eyes when she straightened up and she blushed. He smiled and kissed her forehead. "I told you we'd be okay."

As everyone started to go back to what they had been doing, Amera, Piotr and Pierce returned, looking just as rugged as the rest of them. Oliver rushed up to them as soon as he saw them. "Are you okay?" he asked them, but directed it mostly at Amera. Piotr lowered his eyebrows and stared at his friend.

"We're fine," Amera answered for the group. She led the others into the kitchen, where the rest of the older teens were congregated. "We can move back to the mansion in the morning," she announced, making the whole group cheer.


	5. Carry On

To the asshole that left the rediculously long and horribly rude comment:

I don't care what you have to say. It's FAN FICTION. It's supposed to be fun, not a serious piece of literature. So get off your high horse, Mr. Superior. If you don't like it, then don't read it. Don't trash it because it isn't up to your standards. And no, I'm not going to delete it from the website just because one jerkoff doesn't like it.

Okay, now for those of you who aren't assholes, I continue the story.

* * *

**Chapter Five**

**Carry On**

They moved back into the mansion the following morning, just as Amera had said they should. They worked on clearing debris and picking up bedrooms for a while until everything was cleaned up after about two hours. No matter how much they did, there were still scars from the struggle apparent in scratches along the wall and broken windows. Then the best sound anyone had ever heard resounded through the halls as Jaime shouted, "They're back!"

Many of the students dropped whatever they were doing and ran to the elevator that came up from the underground hangar. Any second now, they would be reunited with all of their friends and teachers. Things could finally go back to normal after a long three days of horror. The door opened finally and all of the kids that had been taken to the government base emerged. Trent ran up to Artie and they both ran off to the recreation room together and Jubilee hugged Kitty and they disappeared together as well. The other four students that had been taken were reunited with their friends and dispersed as well. Then the elevator opened a second time, this time revealing Storm and a strange looking blue man with a long, demon-like tail. At this point, only Piotr, Amera and Danel remained in the hallway. Amera and Danel let out gasps of surprise, and Piotr just stared at the newcomer. "Don't be frightened," Storm said to the last three students there. "This is Kurt Wagner."

Kurt smiled at the slightly scared teenagers. "But in the Munich circus-"

"Kurt," Ororo said sharply to make him stop. The teens exchanged smirks and glances. She led him away. The teens waited rather impatiently for their friends to return.

Then Rogue and Bobby entered. Amera and Rogue squealed and hugged each other, then Amera ran and hugged Bobby. Rogue hugged Danel, who still looked distressed. "Danel?"

"Where's John?" Danel asked.

"Oh," Rogue said, then looked worriedly at her. "He's not coming back."

"He's not… hurt is he?" Danel asked.

"No, but…" Bobby hesitated. "He's joined Magneto."

"But why would he… how could…" she rambled on, wandering away to the dormitory.

The other four stood in the hallway alone, not knowing whether to go after her or to stay put, so they stayed where they were. The last to come out of the elevator were Scott, Logan, and Professor Xavier. Jean Grey was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Professor Grey?" Amera whispered to Rogue. Rogue shushed her.

Scott seemed like he was lost and didn't know what to do with himself, and Logan seemed like he had a chip on his shoulder. Professor Xavier and Scott went on, but Logan stayed behind. "You're the kid I made sure got away safe with the others," he said to Piotr.

"Yes I am," Piotr said. "I wanted to help fight."

"It's probably better you didn't, since you would probably be dead now," Logan said, then turned to Amera. "You were one of the kids I saw escape," he said, recognizing her blue-green hair.

"Yes sir," she answered. She held out her hand to him. "I'm Amera Walker. You saved us all."

Logan looked strangely at her and he held out his hand in greeting. "I'm Logan."

"I know," Amera said with a smile. She took his hand and felt a feeling of familiarity wash over her. She ignored it as he went his way and turned to Rogue. "So what happened to Dr. Grey?"

"She's gone," Rogue stated. "She sacrificed herself to save us."

* * *

John looked around the cement bunker he would be calling home from now on. He felt slightly guilty about leaving without so much as a goodbye to Danel, but he did what he thought was the best move for him. Of course, he still loved her, so as soon as he could, he would try to see her again. He looked around the dank tunnel once more to shake these thoughts from his mind. "Not exactly _Trading Spaces_ material, is it?"

"Does it matter?" Magneto said. "Why should we care what the Homo sapiens think of whatever we do?"

"We shouldn't have to," Mystique said as she took his arm.

"It's so good to be back here and out of that dreadful plastic prison," Magneto said as they started down another tunnel.

"So where do I crash?" Pyro asked. He needed sleep very badly.

"You will 'crash' in here," Magneto said as they reached a doorway that lead into a large dormitory-like room. However, someone was already inside. This someone had white hair, but that was all John could figure out since the person was running about the room faster than his eyes could track. It looked like he was moving in. "Out of juvenile hall already?" Magneto asked, obviously knowing this person.

The person who was zipping around the room halted in an instant, noticing the three at the door for the first time. "Oh, hey Pops," he said. He zoomed forward and shook Pyro's hand. "Name's Pietro Maximoff, nice ta' meetcha." He spoke rather fast, almost fast enough so that it was hard to keep up. "I also go by Quicksilver or Lord Stud."

"John Allerdyce, or Pyro." John answered.

"You two will have to share this room, I suppose," Magneto said as he and Mystique turned to leave.

Pietro looked appalled. "What? Whaddaya mean we hafta share a room?" Pietro pointed at the room across the hallway. "There's another room right there!"

"So there is, how about that," Magneto said, getting a migraine. He turned to leave to find some Tylenol.

"So cant he have that room?" Pietro begged.

"No, he cant," Magneto answered, disappearing down the hall. "Because as of this Friday, your dear cousin is coming to live with us." Magneto finally turned the corner and was gone.

Pietro looked mortified. "What's wrong?" Pyro asked.

"I hate my cousin, and he knows it."

* * *

The older students had been told what had happened during the absence of the adults and the missing students, that a man called Stryker had tried to kill every mutant in the world using a copy of Cerebro and Professor Xavier inside an illusion. Soon, once the confusion had been cleared up, everything went back to normal and classes resumed. Four days had passed since everyone's return, and Amera, being a person of many interests, was running around the mansion with her digital video camera, taping things that she thought seemed interesting. She found Danel, still moping about John's leaving. "Come on, Danel," she said, sticking the camera in her sister's face. "Do something!" Danel obliged and did something that involved her middle finger. "Hey, that was uncalled for!" Amera said in response.

Piotr put his hand on her shoulder and steered her away to let Danel brood. "Maybe we ought to leave her alone for a while?"

"It has been a while! It's been four days!" Amera said as they headed over to the foosball table, where Rogue, Bobby, Jubilee, and Kitty were playing. "Besides, John was a jerk."

Piotr couldn't help agreeing with her last statement. Suddenly, Amera handed him the camera. "What's this for?"

"Tape stuff for a little bit," she said as she started to walk away. "I have to pee." She walked past the foosball table and bumped Bobby in the butt so he fell forward and messed up. He laughed as she disappeared around the corner. Piotr looked around the room to find something to record. He settled on Pierce, who sat on the couch listening to Ray and Thomas argue about _Queer Eye for the Straight Guy_. An episode was playing on TV on the other side of them, but it was being ignored.

"Kyan is the cute one," Ray stated.

"Oh no, Jai is the cutest," Thomas said back. He turned to Pierce suddenly. "Who do you think is cuter?"

Pierce didn't know what to say, and he was afraid of being jumped by two gay boys. His eyes darted from one of them to the other. "Uh…" he thought for another moment. "I think… that maybe they're both cute… in their own way?"

"That was _so_ for Jai!" Thomas said, sparking the argument once more. Pierce sighed in relief. Then Kylia plopped onto the couch beside him and he looked panicked again.

"Hi, I'm Kylia," she said. He had been there for a week, and still she had never introduced herself. She looked extremely nervous talking to him. Piotr refrained from laughing.

"Pierce," he answered, although he had the feeling she already knew that. "Is there something you wanted?" he asked when she didn't say something for a long moment.

Kylia turned red. "Well…" she bit her lower lip, then gathered the courage to blurt out, "I think you're cute!" Pierce turned red, and she turned even redder. "I'm sorry, you're new here, and I know you don't want to be bothered-"

"Thanks," he replied to stop her rambling. She looked at him shyly. "You're the only person I've ever heard say that." He flashed her a smile, and she smiled back then ran away. Then Amera popped up in front of the camera.

"Whatcha doin'?" she said with a big grin.

"Taping," Piotr answered. "You likey?"

"Hey, that's my line!" she said, then punched him lightly in the arm. "Get anything good?"

"Queer Eye for the Gay Guy and Kylia's undying love for Pierce," he said, handing the camera back to her.

"Really?" Amera said as they started looking for something else to tape.

"Well, her crush on him at least." Piotr replied with a shrug.

She kissed him on the cheek. "It's great. I can't wait to edit it."

He raised an eyebrow at her.

"I have an obsession with video taping and editing everything. Haven't you noticed?" She teased.

"Yeah, I kind of wondered about that camera being glued to your hand 24/7."

"Hey Piotr!" one of Piotr's friends called. "Come on! We're gonna go play football!"

He turned to Amera, like he needed her permission to go hang out with his friends. "Go ahead, I'm done taping for today anyway." He ran outside and she walked over to the couch, sitting between Pierce and Thomas. "Hey," she said.

"Hey," the three on the couch replied.

"Ugh, I cant stand this show," Amera said, glaring at the gay men on the television run around New York City like a bunch of idiots that are hungry for attention. "Hey Pierce, wanna go hang out for a while?" There it was again, that feeling. It didn't feel bad anymore, more like a jolt of familiarity, although she didn't know this guy very much at all. "I'm sure you're sick of this Queer stuff."

"Hey!" Thomas said. "You hang out with us all the time!"

"So?" Amera said, then she dragged Pierce to the stairs. "I'm going to introduce you to Japanese culture."

"But you're not Japanese," Pierce observed.

"A minor technicality," Amera said as they reached her dorm. Kitty was inside, talking to Jubilee about shopping. Amera ignored them and set her camera on her desk to be edited later, fighting the strong teenage urge to chat right along with them. She hated being a shoppaholic, like the stereotypical teen girl.

Pierce sat on Amera's bed and waited to be schooled. Amera lifted some books from her shelf and handed them to him. He looked them over. "_The Beginner's Guide to Learning Japanese_ and… what the hell? This book is printed wrong," he said, referring to a copy of Dragonball Z that was printed in right to left format.

"No, it's correct," Amera corrected. "It's in Japanese format, the way the artists intended it to be read. They used to flip them, but apparently people weren't happy because they started printing them the right way a while back." She took the book from him. "This was the second manga I ever bought."

"What was your first?" Pierce asked out of curiosity.

"Sailor Moon was first, but that's geared toward girls, so I thought you might want to read a man's comic." Amera laughed.

Pierce looked at the back cover. "Sounds interesting."

"I think you'll like it," Amera said.

"Is Japanese hard to learn?" Pierce asked, looking at the other book, which had a CD inside the front cover with go-along lessons.

"It was easy for me, but I had been watching anime for a while before then." Amera got up and went to her shelf again. She came back with the Cowboy Bebop box set of DVDs. "You'll like this anime too." She looked at all the things she had given him. "The anime and manga is your homework for the week. I'll start teaching you about Squaresoft and J-pop next week."

Pierce looked at the DVDs a moment, then turned to Amera. "Is this your attempt at trying to make friends? Because it's pretty pitiful." He laughed.

"Well, no one else around here likes this stuff except my sister, so I figured I'd force someone to watch it just to be able to have intelligent conversations with them!" Amera said truthfully.

"I don't blame you, I'd hate that too." He looked over and saw her sketchbook, which was laying open with a freshly drawn picture facing up on the end of her bed. He set the pile of things next to him and picked up the sketchbook. "You draw this?" he asked.

Amera looked embarrassed. "Yeah, it kind of sucks though."

"No, it's really good." He began flipping through pages, which held drawings of manga and anime characters and even some of her own creations. "They're all good."

"Well, thank you," she said. "You know all sorts of stuff about me, and yet I still know almost nothing about you."

Pierce looked back at her and placed the sketchbook back on the end of the bed. "If there was anything to tell, I would. I think that with you teaching me about Japan, it might be good for me. We'll have something in common, and you'll have someone to talk to," he finished with a grin.

"I'd like that," Amera said as Pierce stood, picking up the pile of anime stuff.

"I knew you would."


	6. Window Shopper

Damn it all, I missed a Jaime switch to Trent in the last chapter! Arg! Sorry, folks! *cries in the corner* Oh, and in the original character section of the author's notes waaaay back at the beginning, I forgot Brandon Schaffer, to be introduced sooooooon....

* * *

**Chapter Six**

**Window Shopper**

"Hello?"

Pietro dropped what he was doing and snapped his head toward the bedroom door. "Oh no."

"Oh no what?" John asked, not really listening or caring. He flipped through the pages of a book that Pietro had tossed across the room to get rid of. "Eh, this looks okay," he said, and turned to page one of what turned out to be _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban._

"That was _her_!" Pietro cried as he ran and locked their door.

"Who?" John thought for a moment, then it dawned on him. "Oh yeah, your cousin."

_Knock, knock, knock._ "Pietro, I know you're in there," she called from the other side of the door.

"Hide me!" Pietro silently pleaded, then hid himself in the closet.

John rolled his eyes and opened the door. His heart skipped a beat as he looked at a very beautiful albino girl. (There are a lot of albinos in this story. Khadrim, Pietro, and now Sean.) Then he remembered he still had a girlfriend, who he loved very much. But he could still look, right? "Hi?"

"Oh, where's Pietro?" she asked.

John hadn't thought of any lies to tell her to protect Pietro. "He's, uh, still in Juvi." _Stupid!_ "I'm John Allerdyce."

"Sean Sparrow," the girl replied. "If he's still in Juvi, why is there a bunk bed in your room?"

"For when he gets out, duh."

"But both of them are messy."

"Er," John had to think for a second, but he couldn't take too long or she'd know he was lying. "I'm still trying to decide which bunk I want."

"Uh-huh." She turned to leave. "Pietro, you're going to go nuts if you don't _come out of the closet_!" she teased, then disappeared into her room.

Pietro opened the door of the closet and fell to the floor. "That did _not_ work."

"Not my fault," John said, sitting back down and returning to his book.

Pietro, from his place on the ground, pointed at the door where Sean had been standing. "I HATE YOU!"

"I heard you!"

"Dammit!" he cried, then crawled back into the closet.

* * *

Amera ran into Piotr's dorm and jumped on his bed, where he was laying reading a Russian novel. She had just eaten her way through two giant straws of Pixie Sticks, and now she was on a sugar high. Pierce looked up from watching Cowboy Bebop on his I-Mac for a moment with a smile, then returned to it. Khadrim stared at them from over his Steven King novel, and Oliver stared at Amera over his _Buffy the Vampire Slayer _novel. Piotr laughed and sat up, placing his book on top of his dresser. "What's up?" he asked.

"What are we going as for the Halloween party?" Amera asked.

"Halloween isn't for another three weeks," he said. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I wanna go shopping," she said. "We need to get costumes, and I need to get caught up on all my mangas, like Fruits Basket, Hellsing, XXX Holic, Shaman King-"

Piotr kissed her to get her to stop rambling. "Okay, let me get ready and we'll go to the mall." He got up and went to his dresser to find a shirt, since he wasn't wearing one. "Aren't you going to go get ready?" he asked when she didn't budge.

"Nope, because I already got ready before I came in here, see I'm wearing my shoes and I'm all set to go, now let's go!" She started pulling on his arm the second he had his shirt on.

"Okay, okay, let me get my shoes on!" he said, then kissed her cheek.

"I'll meet you at your car," she said, then ran off. "Pierce, wanna come too? You can get some manga yourself!"

"Uh, sure, I guess," he answered.

"Yay!" she shouted, then disappeared out the door.

"Oh, gag me," Khadrim groaned.

"Look, it speaks!" Piotr responded.

"Ha ha," Khadrim said, rolling his eyes.

"Don't make me tell all your friends that you play video games with that you can't beat Kameo." Piotr said with a gleam in his eye.

"Shutting up," Khadrim said, then buried his nose in his book again.

Piotr and Pierce got ready quickly, then hurried down to the garage that held over a dozen cars and motorcycles. Bobby and Rogue were at the car as well, Amera having asked them to come along. They climbed into Piotr's car and took off, reaching the mall in around half an hour.

Amera was extremely hyper when they entered the mall, humming and dancing around, making the other four laugh. She began to drag Piotr toward Sam Goody. "I thought we were here for costumes and your books," Piotr said.

"I have money to blow since we all just got our allowance," Amera said, hopping over to the rock section. "I still don't have the new Simple Plan CD, or Three Days Grace, or Three Doors Down for that matter…"

Each of them somehow found a CD they wanted, and Amera suggested Fall Out Boy to Pierce, so he got it. He needed to start collecting CDs and posters and books since he had nothing to his name. He also bought a Hilary Duff poster, he thought she was hot. Neither of the other boys argued his reasoning and were looking forward to it being up on the wall. Amera wanted to burn it.

They walked through the mall again an hour after entering the CD store, and they skipped over the ones that most teens skip, like Bath & Body Works and the Hallmark store. They headed straight into Hot Topic. There were a select few costumes there, like a Jack Skellington from _The Nightmare Before Christmas_ and such. But it was above Jack that Amera found the inspiration for her costume. "Perfect." However, she couldn't reach it as hard as she tried.

"Here," Piotr said, reaching up and getting it. "It" was a set of black feathered angel wings.

Amera danced in place and kissed Piotr as he handed it to her. "Yay!" She then whispered what they had to look for when they got to the costume shop.

"Hey, I love this movie," Rogue said as she took one of the Jack Skellington costumes from the wall. "They have a Sally costume too!"

"Well then, let's do that," Bobby said with a smile. Rogue squealed and hugged him, then they went to pay for their costumes.

Pierce looked around at the costumes, but nothing interested him. However, the clothes else where in the store intrigued him quite a bit. He started grabbing things he liked. Lots and lots of black.

"So, Pierce is into the Goth way of life, cool," Amera said as she reached him. She was also looking for some new clothes, since she _only_ ever bought punk and goth clothes. "Goths rock." She looked at the sizes he was grabbing. "Hey, you wear the same size as me!" she laughed. "I'm borrowing those, you know."

"I won't mind if I can borrow your clothes too! Well, I mean, like your pants, not your skirts... that would be weird." Pierce said, because most of the things she owned were from the boys' section anyway. "Since we're the same size and all." He was thrilled that he wouldn't have to keep borrowing Khadrim and Oliver's clothes.

Pierce left with almost an entirely new wardrobe in three huge bags, having spent the rest of his allowance there. (Their allowance is quite a lot of money, by the way.) He knew he could throw a costume together with all these new clothes anyway. Amera had her wings and a copy of Jhonen Vasquez's _Johnny the Homicidal Maniac_ hardcover, a new Living Dead Doll, and a few new items of clothing. Piotr left with a Sirius Black button up prison shirt. They headed to the costume shop and finished Piotr and Amera's costumes, to the bookstore to get Amera's mangas, and a few other clothing stores before heading home.

They were heading up the walkway to the mansion when they ran into a complete stranger, also heading to the front door. The strange man had red eyes and he wore a tattered old trench coat. A pack of cards was just barely visible in one of his pockets. He had a young boy unconscious over his right shoulder. Then he spoke, the other five being too shocked to, in a strong Cajun accent. "'Dis where 'da professor is?" he asked, referring to the famous Professor Xavier.

"Yes," Rogue answered apprehensively.

"We'll take you and your friend right to him," Bobby said as they walked the rest of the way to the door.

"Oh, he ain't Gambit's friend, he just a guy Gambit met and said could follow," he explained. His name was obviously Gambit. He sighed. "But den he jus' get annoyin', so Gambit knock him out."

Amera snorted, but refrained from laughing out loud. The six of them, seven if you count the knocked out boy, headed inside.


	7. This Is Halloween

**Chapter Seven**

**This is Halloween**

Amera lay upside-down on her bed with her headphones on, ignoring the blood rushing to her face. She was singing, which she only did when no one else was around. "'Cause you and I both loved, what you and I spoke of, and others just read of, oh, if you could see me now, well, then I'm almost finally out of-" She stopped when she opened her eyes and saw Piotr standing there. "Ack!" she fell backwards off of the bed and toppled on her head, her headphones falling off as well. Piotr helped her back up, fighting his laughter. "I can't believe you heard me singing…" she seemed really perturbed at this.

"Why? You don't think you can sing?" he asked. "Amera, it was beautiful." She looked at him with that look everyone gets at some point in his or her life - a mixture of doubt and embarrassment.

"No one is _ever_ supposed to hear me sing!" Amera said, flustered.

"Not even your boyfriend?" Piotr said, sitting in her swivel chair. He wheeled it over to her using his feet in a scuffling manner, making her giggle. "You sing really, really well," he said.

"Well you will never, ever hear me sing again," she said, still red in the face.

"Never?"

"Well, maybe I will…" she looked at him, directly in the eyes. "For you."

"Sing for me now?"

"Don't push your luck."

* * *

"Whatchadoin'?"

A strange boy had popped up on the back of the couch, hanging his hands over the back of it between Rogue and Bobby. He had blonde curly hair and green eyes, and both of them were sure they had never seen him before. "Who are you?" Rogue asked.

"I'm Brandon Schaffer, and I just woke up," the boy smiled, then muttered under his breath, "Darn that guy…"

It took a moment, but the pieces fell together. "You're that kid Gambit had with him!" Bobby said in realization.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go to school here now." Brandon was an extreme bundle of energy.

"Really? What are your powers?" Rogue thought he was such a cute little boy, so she wanted to be kind to him.

"I explode stuff."

The two on the couch exchanged glances, unsure of what to say in response to that. Luckily, to end their moment of confusion, Amera and Piotr came out. Amera, the moment she saw Brandon, squealed in excitement. "Momiji!" she cried, thinking he looked exactly like Momiji Sohma from Fruits Basket, which he did. But he didn't know that.

"No, I'm Brandon!" he giggled in response.

Amera sat on the couch, pushing the couple already there into each other with her butt. She started playfully poking Brandon in the side, making him giggle. "No, you are now my Momiji!"

He giggled some more before toppling over the back of the couch into her lap. "Okay!" he agreed, then pointed at himself. "I'm Momiji!" The other four laughed.

* * *

The weeks passed slowly, and not much happened except for the students getting used to the new additions to the school, Gambit and "Momiji". It seemed to take forever, but the day of the long awaited Halloween party had finally arrived.

"Amera!" Momiji cried, racing through the halls to find her. He wanted to show her the costume that he made all by himself. He was wearing it already, although the party wasn't for another three hours. He couldn't find her anywhere, which was strange since her hair was naturally bright blue. "Amera!"

He found her hanging fake spiders on cotton webs in the foyer when she turned around at hearing his voice. He couldn't find her before because she had just dyed her hair black that morning, and he didn't recognize her from behind. "Momiji?" she asked as she heard him yelling her name.

He skidded to a halt and ran to her. "Amera! You look pretty!" he said as she stepped off of a stepladder.

She took a good look at him all dressed in his costume. It was one he had made from a picture of Momiji in the Fruits Basket manga he saw in her room. (For more information, read Fruits Basket Volume 3.) "You're so cute!" she cried, then started hugging his adorable little head off. "But the party isn't for another three hours."

"I know," Momiji said, dancing in place like little kids do so often. "I just wanted to show Amera my costume!"

"Well, it's the best thing I've ever seen!" she said with a wide grin. "Now why don't you go play, I need to finish up here." She climbed back up to the webs as he skipped away happily. She looked to her left where Pierce was helping decorate by putting up a skeleton, but he looked uncomfortable and was rubbing his temples. "Pierce, are you okay?"

He went back to hanging the skeleton in a noose. "Yeah, just a headache," he said, which he hoped was the truth. Even as he said it, the pain started to fade away.

Soon, Amera was finished, and she headed toward the stairs to meet up with Piotr before they got ready. However, she stopped before even touching the rail because she saw Oliver setting up a portable stage and instruments. "Are we going to have a band here?" Amera asked.

He didn't know she had been standing there, and as he stood, he hit his head on a cymbal, making it ring through the halls. He hadn't seen her black hair yet either, and his jaw dropped. He was stunned at how beautiful she looked, even with her dirt-smudged face and messy clothes. He forced himself to look away and continue working on the drum set. "Uh, my sister's band is playing," he answered.

"Sakura's in a band?" Piotr asked. He had stepped up behind Amera without her realizing it and scared the life out of her.

"How did I not know that there was a band here?" Amera asked, then heading to the stairs. "I want a band too!" she said, playfully stomping up the stairs and disappearing to the third floor where the girl's dorms were.

Piotr and Oliver exchanged glances while Momiji mimicked Amera's stomping behind them in the rec room. "Don't look at me, she's your girlfriend," Oliver said as he draped some of the fake webs on the keyboard.

Piotr shrugged and followed her up the stairs, only to be mimicked by Momiji as well.

* * *

An ice sculpture of Dracula, provided by Trent Marcus and Bobby, graced the refreshment table that sat near the entryway in the foyer. Strobe lights flashed everywhere, creating a jerking illusion for everyone in the mansion, who were dancing to the techno music that was currently playing over the sound system, compliments of aspiring DJ Vaughn. However, you could barely tell it was Vaughn at all, since he was wearing a long red trench coat and a large red hat, along with sunglasses and white gloves. He got the idea to be Alucard (Hellsing) from Amera, who loved the anime and manga alike. (Mostly because she loved Crispin Freeman's sexy deep voice.) Rogue and Bobby, who were Sally and Jack, respectively, were near the refreshments, talking to a very gay Batman and Robin, who were holding hands. Lock, Shock, and Barrel, who were actually the troublesome trio of Kylia, Trent, and Tabitha, were running around like lunatics bothering people, that is until Lock (Kylia) saw Edward Scissorhands (Pierce) on a couch and began to blush. Link was sitting on the edge of the stage he had built earlier, watching with jealousy as the Grim Reaper danced with the Angel of Death. Crystal, dressed as the one and only Captain Jack Sparrow, was talking to Aykra, who was dressed as Legolas, and Dante. Khadrim hadn't really dressed as anything, but his new girlfriend Aykra had begged he at least say he was Dante. A very tall Luke Skywalker, who was actually Brian, was dancing with Tinkerbell while Sango of Inu-Yasha fame (Jubilee) was dancing with Bam Margera (Riley, of course) Raven from Teen Titans (Sakura) and a random fairy (Ayrin). GIR and Dib, really Harley and Keifer, were talking next to Pierce's hanged skeleton.

Padme Amidala, actually Kitty, approached the Angel of Death. "Have you noticed Danel isn't down here yet?"

Amera and Piotr stopped dancing and looked around to find Danel, but Kitty was right. She hadn't shown up yet. "Well, maybe we over looked her, there's like a hundred kids in here-" She stopped mid-sentence as she saw John. "What is he doing here?" Amera asked the other two.

"Well, he is your sister's boyfriend," Piotr said. She glared at him. "Shutting up."

John walked right up to Bobby and Rogue, who were now just talking next to the staircase. "Is Danel here?"

"What are you doing here?" Rogue asked harshly, but Bobby shushed her.

"Why do you care?" Bobby asked.

"Oh come on, she's my girlfriend." He said, looking Bobby in the eyes, but all the kindness between the former friends had vanished. "I love her. Is she here or not?"

"She hasn't come down yet," a cold voice said from behind him. Amera had stormed over to give him a good talking to against Piotr's protests. "I can't believe you'd show your face here again, you low life son-of-a-" she trailed off as Piotr pulled her away before she beat him to a bloody pulp.

It took him a couple of minutes to calm her back down, and still she kept glancing over to where John was sitting on the stairs every so often. The techno soon faded into a slow song, one that Amera knew and loved. "I love this song," she said to Piotr as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"You won't sing it for me though, huh?" he asked.

"Maybe if you're a good little monkey," she said, then the words started. Very quietly, she began to sing into his ear so only he could hear. "I'm standing on the bridge, I'm waiting in the dark, I thought that you'd be here by now, there's nothing but the rain, no footsteps on the ground, I'm listening but there's no sound…"

And so went the song. When it ended, another slow song soon began, but no one started dancing this time. They were all staring at Danel, who had appeared at the top of the staircase wearing a long, flowing white gown. She looked extremely beautiful, and everyone watched her descend the stairs. When she reached the bottom, everyone came to their senses and started to dance to Clay Aiken's crooning. "There's something 'bout the way you look tonight, something 'bout the way that I can't take my eyes off you…"

John stood and took Danel's hand and they walked to the dance floor. Amera watched them in silence. "I'm gonna kill him, I'm gonna kill him…"

"Shh," Piotr said, steering her away so she could no longer glare at John. "I think he really does love her," he said.

"I don't doubt that, but he was stupid to leave her," she answered, her gaze now burning holes into the wall. "He's just gonna leave again."

"You know, moaning about John is not having fun. You worked too hard to help put the party together to not have fun," Piotr said, trying to get her to stop worrying about everything.

Danel was having the best time that she had had in a long while. "Funny how we came as Cinderella and Prince Charming, isn't it?" she said as she leaned her head on his shoulder. "I knew you'd come."

"I couldn't wait to see you," he replied. He just wished that he could kiss her.

The party went on for hours, everyone laughing and dancing. Suddenly, silence swept the room. Couples stopped dancing as the strobe lights died and a single light over the stage was lit. Oliver was at a microphone and behind him were Trent, picking up his guitar, Sakura, waiting behind her brother for the microphone, Riley, getting her bass over her shoulder, Ayrin, sitting down at the drum set, and Kylia, who was waiting patiently at the keyboard.

Amera watched them jealously. Everyone in the room looked slightly confused and apprehensive, since few of them knew how the band sounded at all. Oliver cleared his throat and pulled the microphone toward him. "I am pleased to introduce, in their first ever performance, King of Hearts!" Mild applause met the introduction as Oliver left the stage. Only minutes later, it was apparent that the band was really good. Amera turned to Piotr. "I want a band!" she yelled over the loud music and cheering.

It was during their second song that everything went haywire. Pierce had been having a blast one second, listening to the awesome music, then the next second he was in excruciating pain. Without warning, an extremely strong psychic blast went through the room, knocking everything and everyone over. He screamed, his head had never been in more pain. Logan, who hadn't bothered to wear a costume, ran and picked up the thrashing boy and rushed him down to the infirmary, Ororo, Kurt and Professor Xavier following close behind as everyone else was standing back up after being thrown to the ground like that. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but all of Pierce's friends worried about him.

Everyone headed upstairs after that at the persistence of Scott, they'd worry about the decorations and clean up in the morning. Amera couldn't sleep, and she worried about Pierce, especially since every so often the mansion would shake, which was obviously Pierce's doing. After an hour, most of the students had fallen asleep and Pierce's outbreaks had stopped. Then Ororo came into the girls' room, having known that Pierce was one of Amera's friends. "Is he okay?" Amera asked.

"He'll be fine after a few hours sleep," she answered. "His powers are growing, that's all. Kurt's down there right now, keeping an eye on him, so don't worry." She smiled at the young girl. "Get some sleep."

* * *

**Ugh. It's so… girly. *barf* R&R!!!**


	8. Happy Birthday

**Chapter Eight**

**Happy Birthday**

Amera and Danel's birthday was a week after Halloween, on November 7th, and the whole group was in the recreation room, trying to get all gathered together before they headed to the party. No one but Piotr knew where the party was so that the twins would be surprised. The group was actually quite large, so they knew that three cars would have to be taken. In all, there were fifteen kids: Amera, Danel, Piotr, Pierce, Bobby, Rogue, Momiji, Kitty, Jubilee, Khadrim, Aykra, Oliver, Vaughn, Ray and Thomas. Ororo and Kurt would be going as well as chaperones.

As they waited a few more minutes for everyone to get their gifts ready to go, Danel noticed Gambit hanging out by himself. This wasn't odd, since that was what he usually did, even in classes. But this time, he was watching the group with a smile on his face, like he was wishing he was in the group too. She had been afraid of him before, but then again she had also been afraid of Khadrim and Logan. She gathered her courage and walked over to him. "Hey," she said with a nervous smile.

He turned red and he grinned shyly. "Hey."

"Wanna come with?" she asked. His eyes brightened up and he was speechless. "Is that a yes?" He nodded. "I'm Danel." She held out her hand.

He had already known her name, of course. He hadn't really been watching the group, but he had been admiring her from afar. "Gambit," he said.

"Come on, you've been here too long to still be hanging out alone," she smiled and grabbed his arm, pulling him toward the others.

"But I-"

"Oh, come on, we won't bite," Piotr said as they joined them.

"Hard," Amera laughed. "I'm Amera, by the way."

Then everyone started introducing themselves. He opened up rather quickly after that. He didn't know why he had been so shy, but then he realized it was because he was self-conscious about his appearance. But it subsided finally, because no one here seemed to care.

"Alright, let's go!" Ororo called. There was a mad rush as fifteen teenagers ran to the garage with their gifts in tow. Momiji had kindly asked Kurt to teleport to the garage, and kindly he obliged, taking Momiji and Ororo in one quick trip to the garage. The reason there had been a mad rush was because everyone wanted to ride with certain people, and most of them wanted to ride in Piotr's BMW. The ones who made it to his car were Oliver and Pierce, Momiji already having gotten there. Amera and Piotr of course took the front seats as Oliver and Pierce climbed in the back with Momiji. Ororo took the van with Kurt, Bobby, Rogue, Kitty, Jubilee, and Vaughn. Gambit had an old five-seated SUV, and the six remaining teens had to fit inside. Somehow, Khadrim, Aykra, Ray, and Thomas all managed to sit in the back seat as Danel and Gambit took the front. Then they were off.

It was a long ride, especially for the people shoved in the back seat of Gambit's truck, but after an hour and fifteen minutes, they reached their destination. When Amera saw the building, she punched Piotr in the arm.

The newest hot spot for teenagers in the city was a Japanese style karaoke club. For those of you not familiar with Japanese karaoke clubs, let me describe one. These clubs have small, private rooms and individual karaoke machines. Amera loved the fact that it was Japanese style and the fact that a middle aged Japanese couple owned it, but she was _not_ going to sing in front of anyone.

They headed into one of the larger rooms, shoving all the gifts into an empty corner, which was hard, since there were some rather large ones. The party started almost immediately, with Danel taking up the microphone. The karaoke machines were directly from Japan and they had Japanese songs and English songs programmed into it. Danel chose one of the Japanese songs that she was familiar with, since she and Amera both spoke Japanese fluently. It was the 2nd ending theme of Inu-Yasha, "Fukai Mori". "Fukai fukai mori no oku ni ima mo kitto okizari ni shita kokoro kukushite'ru yo…"

Amera didn't touch the microphone. Bobby and Rogue both made fools of themselves as they tried singing "White Reflection" from Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz, and they both failed dismally. They didn't really think about the fact that Amera wouldn't go, since they were all laughing and having a good time. Even Kurt got up and sang a song, even though he only knew one song in English, "Hit Me Baby One More Time."

They took a break after an hour or two to have cake and open the gifts. Danel received an AFI CD from Bobby; a Good Charlotte CD from Rogue; a Matchbox Twenty CD from Kitty; Momiji got the entire Witch Hunter Robin box set for her; Hoobastank's CD from Oliver; new drum sticks from Vaughn; an art set from Thomas; a karaoke machine from Piotr; gift certificates for the mall from Pierce; a techno CD from Jubilee; a Linkin Park CD from Aykra; and the Boys over Flowers DVDs from Amera.

Amera got a Jack Skellington statuette from Bobby; the new _Maximum Ride _novel from Rogue; a Gorillaz CD from Kitty; all the Fruits Basket DVDs from Momiji (he's a rich kid if ya didn't know); a Living Dead Doll from Oliver; a skateboard from Vaughn; the Baz Lurman DVD box set with Moulin Rouge, Romeo + Juliet, and Shakespeare in Love from Thomas; The History of Trunks DVD from Pierce; the soundtrack of _Rent _from Jubilee; a System of a Down CD from Aykra; and Juvenile Orion mangas from Danel.

Ray bought them both new clothes. Whoop-dee-doo.

Khadrim was there. What more could they ask for?

Gambit didn't have anything to give Amera, but he handed a brown box to Danel. "Dis come in da mail for you," he said. She opened it and tears welled up. The box set of Ceres DVDs was inside, along with a letter from John. She set it all aside and wiped her eyes, not wanting to read the letter just yet. She was surprised when Gambit handed her something else. "Dis from Gambit." He was blushing, and Amera nudged Piotr in the side to point it out.

Danel opened the small white box to find a pair of small, but beautiful, aqua colored earrings. "They're beautiful," she said and smiled at him. "Thank you."

"No problem, cher." He wanted to kick himself for calling her that. That was something he only called girls that he liked. But should he really have been embarrassed when he really did like her?

Then came Amera's last present, and it was from Piotr. It was very large and took up the small table that was acting as a coffee table in the room. When she opened it, she nearly fainted. It was an SG Special Epiphone guitar, mahogany, painted red. She jumped up and hugged him around the neck, then kissed him passionately. "Keep it PG!" Ororo advised in a motherly tone.

"I love you!" Amera said, then both of them turned beat red. Then the others began to snicker. This was the first "I love you" between the couple, and everyone in the room knew it. To ease the awkwardness that swept the room, Gambit took the microphone and began to sing "I'm Too Sexy". Piotr put his forehead to Amera's and whispered, "I love you."

The party got to rolling again, and soon everyone began to realize that Amera hadn't sung once. Brandon turned to her with a puppy dog face. "Amera, I wanna hear you sing."

Everyone started on her now, trying to get her to go up and sing. She put up a good fight, but somehow, Piotr convinced her to get up. In fact, I believe the threat was, "If you don't, I'll never kiss you again." Yeah, something like that. The point is that she went up there at all.

She breathed through her anxiety and closed her eyes so she didn't have to look at the others. When she opened her mouth and sound came out, the others' jaws dropped. "_You speak to me, I know this will be temporary, You ask to leave, But I can tell you that I've had enough, I can't take it, This welcome is gone and I've waited long enough, To make it, And if you're so strong, You might as well just do it alone, And I'll watch you go…_" She eventually opened her eyes to see them smiling, just listening. But so were the owners of the club, standing at the door. And some passersby. But for some reason, she didn't care anymore. Her anxiety about singing in public had just reduced to butterflies in her stomach. Then the music stopped. Applause and cheering rang in the room and in the halls alike as she sat down. She turned to Danel. "When we get back to the mansion, we are going to start practicing like crazy, because I want a band."

"Okay…" she replied, then turned back to her conversation with Gambit.

After Amera had fought off her stage fright, it was Pierce's turn. He hadn't gone either, and everyone noticed once Amera had sat down. He chose to sing "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance, which he had liked after borrowing Oliver's copy of the CD. He memorized it at the mansion quite fast, and since he knew only a couple of songs, he narrowed down those few to come to this song. Once again, the people in the room were in awe at the person who was singing. "_When I was a young boy, My father took me into the city, To see a marching band. He said, 'Son, when you grow up, Would you be the saviour of the broken, The beaten, and the damned…_'" He sang as well as, or better than, Gerard Way himself. The gears in Amera's head started turning. When he sat down, she had a proposal for him. "Want to be in our band?"

* * *

Pietro needed space.

Or at least for things to go his way for once. He didn't mind sharing a room with John. He had gotten used to that and they became fast friends. No, what he needed was for Sean to go away.

Far, far away.

Somehow, crazy things like underwear that belonged to her would get mixed in Pietro's laundry, or her belongings would be scattered in the living room and she wouldn't pick it up. And then there was the bathroom. She had taken it upon herself to claim the medicine cabinet in the name of her tampons and make-up. But the thing that pushed him over the edge was that his deodorant was out. But not just that. There's more to this story than just the disappearance of his deodorant, because, you see, that would be far too simple. Sean had done the last bit of shopping, and although he had specified which brand he used, no, _needed_, she bought the wrong stuff.

Which brings us to the present.

"Sean!" he yelled from the bathroom.

"What, ass-crack?" she asked, indicating that his boxers were hanging low.

He pulled them up. "You got the wrong brand!" he said, shaking the stick in her face.

"They were out of the stuff you wanted, so I got that," she shrugged.

"But I'm out!"

"Use that."

"No!"

"Whatever," she said. She had the ability to phase through shadows, through what she called the "Shadow Realm" and to anywhere she pleased, much like Nightcrawler's powers. She phased through his shadow and into the living room, then proceeded to watch TV from the couch.

Pietro ran to the living room and chucked the deodorant stick, aiming for her head, into a lamp near the TV. "I HATE YOU!"

"Right, shut up. _Lost_ is on."

* * *

**For those who don't know, the song Amera sang was "Can't Take It" by the All-American Rejects. Yeppers. R&R?**


	9. My Sacrifice

**Chapter Nine**

**My Sacrifice**

_Dear Danel,_

_Happy Birthday! I wish I could be there with you right now, I miss you so much…_

And so the letter went as Danel read in the privacy of her bed. She had read it once everyday for the past week since it arrived. Tears were welling up again, but then she was suddenly startled by an impulsive burst of laughter from Amera, who was doing something on her computer. Danel wiped her eyes and got up, heading over to Amera. "What are you doing?" she asked.

Amera quickly covered up her screen. "Remember when Vaughn tried to do a wheelie on his BMX bike and landed on his face?"

Danel raised an eyebrow, watched the sad clip on Amera's computer screen, then shrugged. "Whatever." She started back to her bed, but then a small blonde streaked by her, making her nearly run into him.

Momiji danced around the room, then flopped onto Danel's bed. "There's someone here to see you, Danel!"

Indeed, downstairs, John waited patiently in the foyer for his beautiful girlfriend. He couldn't wait to see her. Then there she was, descending the stairs like a goddess. (I hate writing mushy stuff.) She ran down and hugged him tight, never wanting to let go. "Hey, beautiful," he said.

"Why'd you have to go?" she asked, not having ever asked before. She hadn't wanted to spoil their good time at Halloween, so it seemed now was as good a time as any. "I don't like only seeing you every once in a while."

"I know, it sucks not being able to see each other everyday," John said, looking her in the eyes. "But I believe in Magneto's cause. We are the future of the world, Danel, and the humans don't get that. They fear us and hate us, but we are their future."

Danel looked saddened by this. "I can't change what you believe, John, but I can't accept that. I think that someday, naturally, mutants may dominate the world, but we should just try to fit in until then. And that wont happen for a very, very long time." She looked away for a moment, then looked back with a smile on her face. "So, why'd you visit today?"

"Actually, it was on my way, I've got grocery duty today." He laughed a short, awkward laugh. "So I decided to stop by and see you."

"How long do you have?" Danel asked, gripping his hand, never wanting to let it go.

"Not long, I need to get going," John said. He leaned over to kiss her, but she jerked away. "Hmm. Well, it was worth a shot." He hugged her again, then turned to leave. "I'll see you later."

"Okay," she said, smile slowly fading from her face.

"I love you, Danel," he said, opening the door.

"I love you, too," she said, then he disappeared. She sighed, then trudged up the stairs.

As she vanished around the corner, John stepped back inside, then went upstairs to find his target. He found Piotr alone in his room, reading _The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. _Piotr nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw John standing there. "Jesus Christ!" he cried, tossing his book down. "What are you doing here?"

John sat in Piotr's office chair. "I'm here with an offer."

"What kind of offer?" Piotr asked, sliding to the edge of the bed.

"Magneto has ways of finding out about people, and he knows what you can do," John said. "I'm offering a chance to rule the world, Piotr. Join Magneto."

"Join Magneto's anti-human army?" Piotr said. "I don't think so. I don't believe that we should be killing humans off. My family, your family, most of our families are all human, and you want to destroy them?"

Pyro stood and glared at Piotr. "I'm giving you a warning, Colossus. You have to join him or else."

"Or else what?"

Pyro turned away. "I don't know. But he'll do something to convince you to join him."

* * *

Pierce knocked on the doorframe of Amera's room and entered, holding her belongings in his hand. She sat at the computer again, headphones covering her ears. "Hey," he said, since she hadn't heard the knock.

She quickly closed the program she was using, since she had been watching an embarrassing clip of herself. "Yo," she said, swiveling around in her chair as he sat on Danel's bed. "You're done with that stuff already?" she asked, not believing he had memorized every bit of Japanese that was in that language book.

"Yeah, Japanese came really easy for me," Pierce said. "Whoddathunk?"

Amera stared at him, thinking. Pierce could tell she was thinking hard, because her eyebrows nearly met in the middle of her forehead. It had taken her months to learn that book, and Pierce had done it in two weeks? Then it hit her. "Pierce, I think you found another power," she said. "You must have some sort of fast learning ability."

Pierce thought about that. "That would explain why I can speak German." Amera looked confused. "I've been hanging out with Kurt a lot," he answered.

"Okay, new assignment," she said, looking at the books on her shelf as she put the others away. She pulled a select few from the mass and tossed them to Pierce. "Now you have to learn how to read and write Japanese, which will obviously be no problem for you." She said, then turned back to her shelf. "And how about Ayashi no Ceres and Inu-Yasha?" she pulled the aforementioned mangas from the shelf and handed them to Pierce as well. "Go stick those mangas in your room, then meet me out in the yard and we'll start studying the Japanese characters, okay?"

Pierce smiled, which made Amera's insides tingle. She still had that feeling every so often, which happened only around Pierce and Logan. She ignored it and smiled back as Pierce got up and headed to his dorm.

Oliver was sitting at his computer, watching one of the anime DVDs that Amera had loaned Pierce when Pierce entered the room. "Hey, you have any more of this stuff?" he asked as Pierce placed all of the books on his bed.

"Uh, not anime, no, but I have some of Amera's mangas if you want to read them," Pierce answered, grabbing the Japanese book. "Uh, do you want to come with me? Amera's going to teach me how to write Japanese, I think she'll teach you some too."

Oliver's eyes sparkled. "Really? Amera? Okay!" He got up in record speed and the two of them headed out to the lawn. However, when they got there, Amera was nowhere to be seen. There were some younger kids playing soccer, and Ray and Thomas were on a distant bench talking, but no Amera. "Where is she?"

"I don't know," Pierce said, a bewildered look on his face. He turned back to the mansion to head back inside. "Maybe we beat her here."

"Yeah, okay," Oliver said, and the two of them headed back inside and up to Amera's dorm. Bobby and Rogue were inside talking about going to the mall, but again Amera was not there. They headed back to their dorm to see if she had gone in there for whatever reason, but they only found Piotr, having returned to _Hitchhiker's Guide_. "Have you seen your girlfriend anywhere?" Oliver asked.

"I just saw her on my way here, she was going outside to meet you, Pierce," Piotr answered.

"She wasn't there when we got there," Pierce said, now getting worried. "We've searched everywhere but the rec room, but we can't find her."

Piotr's eyes opened wide as he remembered the words that Pyro had said to him just a day ago. _He'll do something to convince you to join him…_ "Shit," he said, throwing his book down to the floor and running out of the room, the other two quick on his heels.

"Piotr, what's wrong?" Oliver asked, being a bit slow on the uptake.

Pierce dodged around a kid who was just coming out of his room and kept running. "Obviously Amera's missing!"

"But why?" Oliver said between breaths. "Where could she have gone?"

Piotr came to a halt at the rec room, where once again there was no Amera. "It's my fault," he said, just barely loud enough for the other two to hear. The dozen or so other kids in the room stared at the three boys that had just run in at full speed, then returned to what they were doing after the initial shock wore off. Piotr collapsed to his knees. "Magneto…"

Vaughn approached the three boys, who were out of breath, and Pierce was leaning against the doorframe. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Oliver looked at him. "You haven't seen Amera, have you?"

"She went outside, and I saw her meet up with Piotr. Oh, hi Piotr." He stood still for a moment, then his eyebrows lowered. "Wait, why are you in here when I just saw you outside?"

Piotr looked up at Vaughn, sweating and still trying to catch his breath. "I haven't been outside." He finally got to his feet and started at full speed to Professor Xavier's office, leaving behind a very confused Vaughn. When he reached the door, he realized Oliver and Pierce had followed. "Stay out here."

"No way!" Oliver said.

"She's my best friend, Piotr," Pierce objected.

"You think you're the only guy that cares about her?" Oliver asked, his face red.

Piotr was about to respond, when Momiji approached them, and they noticed he looked panicked as well, eyes red and wet. "Guys," he said in his sweet little voice, but he was choked up with tears. "I can't find Amera! I've looked and looked…" he broke down and started to cry. "I wanted to show her that I've been learning Japanese toooooo…"

Piotr looked at the little boy and gulped the knot that had formed in his throat. He leaned down and picked the boy up and turned back to Oliver and Pierce. "Come on." He sighed and opened the door.

"Can I help you boys…" Xavier started after looking up from his books. He then noticed that they all had panicked looks on their faces. There was no need for explanation, as it was obvious to him what was going on, but all four of the boys started telling him their dilemma. He sat and listened patiently. When they had all finished, he looked at Oliver and Pierce. "Will you please take Brandon so I may speak with Piotr alone?" Oliver and Pierce exchanged glances, then helped Momiji down from Piotr's arms and took him, hand in hand, out of the room. When Xavier felt it was safe for the two of them to talk in private, he looked Piotr deep in the eyes. "What are you going to do?"

* * *

Her head was spinning. She didn't know what was going on, and with her eyes still closed, Amera tried to move. Her arms were tied up with something and she started to panic. When she opened her eyes her heart nearly stopped. She was looking into the face of Magneto. "You-You're Magneto," she stammered.

"Yes," he said, a cold grin on his face.

"What do you want with me?" she asked, trying to free her hands. She attempted to use her powers to turn into a puddle, but it wouldn't work.

"Let's just say it's a matter of leverage," he said. "And don't expect to escape. You're wearing a neutralizing band around your wrist that won't allow you to use your powers."

"Why do you need me for leverage?" she asked, now getting angry instead of frightened.

"I'm interested in acquiring one of your friends for my army," Magneto said.

Amera wondered why he would tell her that. "You're after Piotr, aren't you?"

"Smart girl."

She glared at him. "You're going to kill me."

"Only if Piotr refuses," Mystique said as she came into Amera's view. "He'll have a few days to join, and you'll be kept quite safe here." Mystique let out a laugh. "Until we kill you."

"Hey, Magneto, is it okay if I take the Rolls-" Pyro entered the room, having had no idea what was going on, then stopped in mid-sentence when he saw Amera tied in a chair. "What the fuck!" He ran up to Magneto. "That's my girlfriend's sister!"

"And?"

Pyro looked at him, afraid to challenge him. "No-nothing."

"Sure, take the Rolls Royce." Magneto said, fishing the keys from his pocket. "That's a good boy." Pyro left the room, looking back at Amera before disappearing.

Magneto smiled. It was all going according to plan.

* * *

Piotr stood on the side of the road with a backpack slung over his shoulder, his thumb out, hoping someone would pick him up. He had walked a mile away from the Institute, but he knew he would never get to Magneto in time. Then he realized he didn't even know where Magneto lived. "Damn," he muttered, but kept his thumb out. _Maybe an alien ship will pick me up and just kill me_, he thought, hoping deep down that it actually would happen. Instead, a silver convertible pulled up next to him. Piotr stared at the driver, who looked no older than he did, eighteen.

"Get in."

* * *

Amera looked around her new surroundings. It was a small bedroom, and it was decked out with things she might normally put in her own room back at the Institute, like posters and even some manga. She sighed while sitting on the bed, wondering how the hell she was going to escape, and if Piotr would join Magneto just to get her back safe, hoping he wouldn't. While she was pondering this, her mind wondered into why Magneto would have a room that seemed to be made just for her. Then it snapped in her head. "Magneto wasn't going to kill me, he was going to keep me too!"

"No shit, Sherlock," Pyro said, making Amera jump out of her skin. "I figured that out when I saw you here. This room was going to be Piotr's, and yours I guess, but obviously you don't want to be here."

Amera glared at him. "What are you saying? Like you're gonna help me escape."

"That's exactly what I'm saying," John said, tossing a backpack at her. "There's plenty of food in here for you to hitchhike back to the Institute." He looked at the bookshelf in the room and grinned. "And I bet you're gonna want to take some of those books you like."

She looked at him with mistrust. "Why are you doing this?"

John sighed. "Well, I'm probably going to get chewed out for helping you get out of here, but I owe it to your sister."

Amera stood and headed toward him, stopping briefly at the bookshelf, indeed taking some of the books. Then she grabbed a poster off the wall. Then some of the CDs that had been stashed in there. "Hello, we don't have all day, these hallways are being monitored by some of Magneto's guards." John said to hurry her up.

She looked around the room, wishing she could take it all with her, but followed John out into the hallway. "Alright," he said as they reached a corner in the concrete hallway. "As soon as the next guy rounds that corner, we're gonna run to the end of this hallway. There's an old service tunnel there, and you're gonna have to go from there alone. It dumps right into the street-" He was cut off as Amera hugged him tightly. "What the hell?"

"Thank you," she said.

Pyro blushed, then looked around the corner again. The guard was reaching the end of the hallway, and then disappeared around the corner. John grabbed Amera's hand and they ran as fast as they could to the end of their hallway. "Okay, this is it."

"Okay," Amera said, climbing up the steel ladder that headed to the upper service tunnel.

"Tell Danel I love her."

Amera looked down at him. "Okay." She headed back up. When she was finally out of sight, he let out a sigh and turned around just as Pietro came into the hall. With Piotr.


	10. Get Over It

**Chapter Ten**

**Get Over It**

Amera realized when she reached the street that she had no idea where in the world she was. None of the surroundings looked familiar, and she could smell salty seawater nearby. She was hungry, so she took a package of food from the backpack John had given her. It was a package of beef jerky, but it was food. She looked to see what other things he had sent; there were a few bottles of Sobe, some more beef jerky, some sandwiches, and some bags of cheetos. Then she noticed that there was a personal CD player and some batteries in there. Man, John had thought of everything. She smiled, put a CD in the player, slung the bag back over her shoulder, and started down the street, listening to Fall Out Boy and munching on jerky. (mmm, kudu jerky pretzels. Umm, that's from the Monkey Island games…)

Every so often, a car would pass by, but none of them would pick up a hitchhiker, so Amera kept walking. Finally she passed a sign that told her where she was, or at least what state she was in: New Jersey, a long way from home.

* * *

Scott, Ororo and Xavier had waited till dark to leave the mansion so that the students wouldn't get too riled up. Oliver and Pierce had insisted that they come too, since they were friends of Amera, whom they were going to rescue, but Xavier wouldn't have it. Once inside the X-Jet, Xavier made contact with Piotr telepathically as Scott and Ororo took the controls. *Piotr, can you hear me?*

Piotr had been in his room, which Amera had obviously raided since books and posters were missing. He jumped when he heard Xavier talking to him. He would never get used to that. *Professor?*

*Is Amera still there?*

*No, John helped her escape. Can't you track her telepathically?*

*I'm trying to, but it's very hard to get a reading when you're going 200 miles an hour through the sky, Piotr.*

*You'll find her though, right?* Silence. *Right?*

Piotr looked up from the floor at that moment to see Magneto standing in the middle of the room. "It's no use talking to him anymore, Colossus, I've made recent additions to the base that wont allow Charles to ever find it."

"Yes sir," Piotr said, looking at him, not knowing what else to say.

"And I don't mind that the girl got away," Magneto added. "It was you I was after in the first place."

Back in the Jet, Xavier was trying to put a lock on Amera, who was so hard to track because she would turn into a puddle to travel faster and it was impossible to even sense her in that state. "All I know is that she is in New Jersey," Xavier told Scott and Ororo.

* * *

_Finally, a ride,_ Amera thought as she threw her backpack into the backseat of a middle-aged couple's car. "Thank you so much," she said as she shut the door.

"No problem," the man said with a kind smile. "How far are you going?"

"How far can you take me?" Amera asked.

"New York City," the wife said. "Well, just outside of the city."

"Great."

Amera slept most of the way there, and was shook awake by the wife. "Here you go, sweetie," she said, helping Amera to her feet and gather her things.

"Thanks again," Amera said. She stood on the corner of a suburban street as the couple drove away down the road to their home. She sighed and looked up and could see the city over the roofs of the houses. At least she knew where she was now. She took her CD player out again and a bottle of Sobe, then started walking.

* * *

"She's near New York City," Xavier said, having been tracking Amera the entire time.

"We'll be there in a few minutes," Ororo said and fiddled with some of the controls.

Xavier didn't let Amera's trail out of his mind's sight. He kept an eye on her, then suddenly she stopped. "She's stopped."

"Where?" Scott asked.

"Just ahead!" Xavier said.

They landed the plane about fifty yards from her on an empty stretch of road, currently under construction for new homes. Ororo and Scott ran out of the jet and tried to see Amera in the darkness. "There she is, I see her!" Ororo said, then rushed to Amera's side.

Amera was unconscious and her lip was bleeding. Ororo lifted her upper body gently, and felt blood on Amera's side. Next to Amera, on the road, were black tire marks. "She's been hit by a car," she said as Scott carefully lifted Amera. Ororo grabbed the backpack that had been laying next to her. As fast as they could without hurting Amera further, they ran back to the jet and lay her on one of the back seats and buckled her in. Xavier tended to her as the other two manned the controls again.

* * *

Amera awoke to bright florescent lighting and squinted her eyes. "Welcome back," Xavier said with a smile. He sat in his wheel chair next to her place on an examination table.

Amera moved her neck from side to side since it felt extremely sore. "What happened? How'd I get back?"

"You were hit by a car, luckily you weren't hurt too badly." Xavier said.

Amera sat up slowly and painfully. She felt stitches in her side and knew she had to be badly bruised. Her lip felt swollen as well. She looked around the room, expecting to see Piotr. She only saw Oliver, Pierce and Momiji, who had fallen asleep in a heap in some metal chairs across the room. She laughed awkwardly at the sight of the three boys, but was still worried. "Where's Piotr?"

Xavier's eyebrows narrowed. "He's gone." He stated simply, then handed Amera a slip of paper. "You may go when you feel like it. I'll wake the boys and get them to leave so you can get dressed."

When Amera got outside, it was sunset of the day after she had escaped. She saw familiar faces everywhere, playing in the freshly fallen snow, but didn't feel happy, which was odd for her. She headed to the gazebo where she and Piotr had found Pierce and sat on the same bench as that night. She looked at the wood floor, which still had a few darkened marks from Pierce's blood. She hadn't read the letter that Xavier had handed her yet, so she pulled it out from her jacket.

_Dear Amera,_

_I'm hoping that you're reading this, because that means you've either escaped or Magneto let you go because I joined him. I couldn't let Magneto just take you away. I know you expected better things from me, and you never wanted me to join a cause that I didn't believe in, not even if it was to save you. It was one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make._

_Another, tougher decision I had to make was about you as well. I love you with all my heart, and that's why I can't let you go around sad. That's not you. So to let you be free and yourself, I'm saying goodbye. It's the best thing- I don't want to put you through the same torment your sister goes through every day by not being with the guy she loves. I'm sorry that this may hurt you, but it's the best thing for us. _

_Love Always, Piotr_

Amera stared at the page in shock as the light started to dim. The sunlight was fading now, but she didn't feel like going inside just yet. She wouldn't cry in front of anyone. She'd go inside and just be her happy normal self. She just needed to get the crying out.

Tears blotted the page when she looked at the letter again. She wiped her now dry eyes and looked into the trees, where the sunlight could no longer be seen, but it was still a little light out. The curfew wasn't until nine anyway, so she sat on the bench. She looked at the paper once more, then crumpled it and threw it as far away from her as she could. It fell into a pile of snow and disappeared.

"Hey," someone said from behind her. She turned around and saw Oliver coming up the stone path she had cleared to get to the gazebo.

"Hey," she said, wiping her eyes one last time so he wouldn't see that she had been crying. "What are you doing out here?"

"I came to see how you were. You've been out here for a good hour," Oliver said as he sat down on the bench next to her. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Amera lied. She smiled at Oliver. "You worried about me?"

Oliver's heart skipped a beat, as was normal around her. He felt heat rise to his face and he knew he was blushing. But he couldn't help it, she looked so beautiful in her long black coat and her black hair out in the snow. "All of us are worried about you. Pierce is beside himself, and Khadrim was tempted to go kill Magneto. And Momiji, he's been crying on and off since yesterday when you disappeared," he said.

Amera looked back at the snow. Her heart was still aching.

Oliver looked at the snow as well. _Stupid_, he yelled at himself,_ she asked if you were worried, not everyone else. How do you expect to ever-_ He looked up at Amera again, and she was only a few inches away from his face. He hadn't noticed her come closer and now she looked ready to kiss him. His heart could have stopped. "I was really worried about you too, and… what are you doing? What about Piotr?"

"Piotr broke up with me," she said, then kissed him.

Oliver was shocked at first, wide-eyed and bewildered. He couldn't believe she was making moves on him! Then he closed his eyes and kissed her back. Amera wrapped her arms around his neck and he leaned forward, making her lay on the bench. After a moment, his hands started roaming, finding their way up her plaid, pleated skirt to her backside, which was now beneath a pair of tights she was wearing to keep warm. His other hand moved it's way to her breasts, while her hands moved to his backside. Neither of them was thinking, just moving, and Amera's hand moved down to his zipper. She was kicking off her slip on boots and Oliver was working on removing her tights and panties.

* * *

Oliver felt somewhat strange as he and Amera walked back to the mansion side by side. Oliver had wanted that for so long, and he'd had it. But he was kind of planning for that to come much later-they weren't even going out! When this thought came to mind, he screwed up the courage to speak. To finally say what he had wanted to say for over a year. "Amera?"

She looked at him. As they neared the mansion, the lights from inside were reflected onto her, along with the dim white light from the moon. Oliver gulped. "Yeah?" She looked happy, not at all worried about what they had just done.

_Say it, say it!_ He gulped again. "Will you go out with me?"

Amera smiled and took his hand. "Of course."

Inside, in the rec room, Gambit and Danel were sitting and chatting, as they did a lot recently. They never talked about anything in particular, and at this time they were talking about a movie they had seen together during the day. "I never, ever expected that ending!" Danel said, referring to _Saw_.

"Dat was the freakiest movie Gambit ever seen!" he laughed.

Danel smiled at him. For some reason, she wasn't missing John at all at that moment. She didn't have very much time to ponder this, because at that exact moment, Amera came running in and pounced on their laps, laying the whole way across the couch. "How ya doin'?" she said.

"You seem extremely happy," Danel observed. "Why are you so happy?"

"I'm always happy, dumb-butt." Amera said, sitting up and taking a seat next to Gambit.

"Yeah, didn't you know?" Oliver said, sitting next to her and taking her hand.

Danel noticed they were holding hands and her jaw dropped. "You… and you?" she asked. "What about Piotr? Piotr's gonna kill something when he-"

"He's not coming back," Amera said, looking at her sister. "And he broke up with me, so there." She stuck out her tongue and lowered her right bottom eyelid with her index finger.

"How rude, " Danel said, making the same face back.

"Wanna go down to the garage and practice?" Anything to get her mind off of things.

"Um, we don't have an entire band yet," Danel pointed out.

"Oh yeah. Well, who do we know that can play bass?" Amera asked.

"Um… Aykra and Anya." Danel said, trying to think of any others.

"Yeah… Anya's a 'no'." Amera said, not wanting to get on the bad side of a schizophrenic that can raise demons from hell. "Okay, let's ask Aykra. What about keyboards?"

Oliver turned red, and Danel noticed. "I think your boyfriend does."

Amera turned to Oliver, who then turned even redder. "You can play keyboards?"

"Well, yeah… my mom made me take lessons until I came here." Oliver said.

"Okay, you're now in my band," Amera said, not giving him a choice. "Now let's go find Aykra and Pierce."

It was around seven thirty when they finally got down to the garage where Danel's drum set was stored. Amera and Aykra brought their guitars down with them, while Oliver hauled the keyboard he had hidden under his bed downstairs. Danel and Pierce brought her karaoke machine and some CD's (for a microphone and so Pierce can learn the songs) and all the sheet music any of them had. Amera had tons of sheet music that she had bought at music stores, and they had copies for every instrument in them. They decided to go with her books. As Danel ran to get Xerox copies of the music, Amera clutched her side. "Are you okay?" Oliver and Pierce asked at the same time.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Amera said. "Maybe I shouldn't have jumped on Danel and Gambit though."

"You sure you're okay?" Oliver asked. "You don't want to get Xavier to look at it?"

"Look at what?" Pierce asked. He knew she had been hit by a car, but didn't know she had stitches. No one but Oliver knew that much.

"My bruises," Amera lied. She turned away and lifted her shirt to inspect the cut, and it was fine. Just some soreness from jumping onto her sister.

"Done!" Danel yelled when she came back at 7:45. She handed every one their instrument's music and returned to her drums.

Amera, since she was the boss according to the others, chose what song they should try first. "Alright, let's try Slide by the Goo Goo Dolls," she said. She looked at Pierce. "It's on Dizzy Up the Girl."

By the time they all had to head to their rooms at ten, Pierce had memorized the song and everyone else was starting to sound like the actual song. "Alright, we finish tomorrow!" Amera said happily as they headed up the grand staircase.

"Slave driver!" Danel joked. Amera chucked a guitar pick at her head.

* * *

"Where's my chicken?"

"I didn't eat your chicken!"

"Liar!"

"Freak!"

Pietro and Sean were at it again. This time, the chicken Pietro had bought was gone. But you probably already figured that out.

Then Pyro and Colossus walked in, carrying a reheated bucket of chicken between the two of them, munching happily on it. Pietro watched them as they disappeared around the corner. Then he rounded on Sean. She was right! He hated when she was right! "I HATE YOU!"

Sean watched as he ran and followed the chicken, then shrugged and returned to _The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl._

_

* * *

**Please review!**_


	11. Walk

**Chapter Eleven**

**Walk**

"Could you whisper in my ear the things you wanna feel? I'd give up anything to feel you come in…" Pierce sang his heart out as the band rocked out behind him. No one was there as an audience except for Momiji, who attended most of their practices during the past two weeks as long as he got to bed before 9:30, and Gambit. By this time, they had a whole regimen of songs they knew, all covers of course, but they could, if they wanted, play a concert.

"Hey, Amera, why don't we do Bring Me To Life next?" Pierce asked once the music ended.

She didn't answer his question, because at that moment, Momiji started waving his arms around like a maniac from his seat on the hood of Gambit's truck, then he said, "Ooh! Ooh!"

Amera looked at Momiji with a grin. "What is it, Momiji?"

He lowered his hands at once into his lap and started swinging his legs. "What's your band called?"

"Uh, er…" Amera looked at the others, who were also exchanging glances with everyone else. "I don't know."

"I might have an idea," Oliver said. "I don't know why, but the word 'Downfall' came to mind." (an ode to another old story of mine, Rock Star.)

Amera shook her head. "Nah, that's a Matchbox song." She pondered a little longer.

Gambit took Amera's camera, which was sitting behind him on the hood of the truck, and proceeded to record this monumental moment in the life of the band. But he couldn't get it to not be blurry. "Hey, Amera, how you make dis thing not blurry no more?"

Amera put her guitar down and took the camera from Gambit. "There's a little button right here that says 'auto focus' on it, hit that and you're set." Then her head snapped up as she handed it back to him. "Auto focus…" She started to smile.

Pierce turned to Oliver. "I think she's lost it."

Oliver grinned. "No, I think she's found it."

Amera looked at the band. "Guys, what do you think of 'Auto Focus'?"

"So it's true."

Amera turned to where the voice came from. Sakura and her band, King of Hearts, who you might remember from the Halloween party, were standing at the elevator doorway, glaring at the group. "I heard that my brother had joined a band. A rival band. Traitor."

"Where'd you hear that from?" Oliver asked. "We've only told Momiji, Gambit, Vaughn, and Ray and Thomas."

"You idiot, did you forget one of my friends is Harley? You know, Vaughn's cousin Harley?" Sakura trudged forward, King of Hearts following. Kylia waved and blushed at Pierce. Pierce raised an eyebrow and waved back. Sakura elbowed Kylia in the ribs. She turned instantly back to Amera. "I propose a challenge."

Amera now raised her eyebrow. "A challenge?"

Sakura smiled. "Yes, a challenge. A Battle of the Bands, really. The judges will be the rest of the school."

Amera looked at her band, which she had complete faith in. She looked back at her challenger with a wicked and confident smile. "Name the time and place."

Sakura consulted with her band. "We'll give you three months, since you're newbies. March first, out on the grounds."

Amera smiled again. "Done." She thought a moment. "But what's the prize?"

"Losers do the winners' chores for a month." Sakura said after a moment's thought.

"What?!" the rest of King of Hearts protested. "We never agreed to that!" Kylia complained.

"It's okay, though, because we will not lose." Sakura said. She handed a piece of paper to Amera, quite huffily, Amera thought, and without another word, she stalked out of the room, followed closely and reluctantly by the rest of the group.

Amera looked down at the piece of white computer paper she now held in her hands. It was a list of requirements that the band needed for the day of competition. They were to choose seven songs from different bands or categories. Amera looked at her band with an insane glint in her eyes. "Let's get to work, guys."

* * *

Little did the X-Men know, while the Institute's students were worrying about trivial matters like the Battle of the Bands, Magneto had been planning his next move. Tonight was the night to set his plan into motion. He, Mystique, Pyro and Colossus were enough for this minor task of setting all the mutants trapped in a government facility free, and get them to join their cause. The mutants at this particular base of operations had undergone horrible experiments, just as the ones at Alkali Lake had.

Now, standing outside of this heavilly armed base, Piotr just wanted to go home. Then Magneto spoke. "Let's go, boys."

* * *

Thanksgiving at the mansion was a crazy affair, just like it was every year, some students went home to see family, but most stayed at the Institute to celebrate with friends. Now it was the day after, everyone feeling lazy after eating so much turkey and mashed potatoes. Everyone, that is, except Amera, of course. "I wanna go shopping!" she whined as she lay with her head hanging upside down off Oliver's bed at ten in the morning. Khadrim, who was still trying to sleep, groaned and put his pillow over his head.

"Alright, alright..." Oliver said, finally giving in after a half an hour of her jumping up and down on his mattress and dancing in circles. Pierce, across the room, looked amused. So the boys got ready to go to the mall, because Amera always was ready, and they headed out of the room. Before they reached the grand staircase, however, they met up with Kylia Smith, the girl who so long ago had confessed she liked Pierce. Her face was red.

"Hi, Kylia," Pierce said. She was looking kind of cute, her hair in little braids and she was shyly picking one spot of the carpet with the toe of her Sketchers. (shameless plug...)

"Hi Pierce..." If it were possible, her face turned even redder. "Uh... I was, kind of maybe wondering if maybe you would kinda if you wanted to go out with me?"

Amera bit her lips to keep from giggling and Oliver steered her away, toward the staircase to let Pierce and Kylia have some privacy. "I don't think that Sakura's going to be too happy about her keyboard player dating our singer," she said once they were downstairs. They headed to the recreation room to find Gambit and Danel to ask them if they wanted to go shopping too, and found them watching Harry Potter and the Gobet of Fire together, although it looked as though Gambit had fallen asleep on Danel's shoulder. Amera snuck up behind them, then with her purse, smacked Gambit in the head and shouted, "Wake up!"

He jumped up, expecting there to be some sort of danger, but only saw Amera laughing insanely. Danel looked angrily at him. "You were asleep?!" she started, and Gambit's face turned red.

"No time to argue now, we're gonna go to the mall!" Amera said, dragging Danel up from the couch and toward the front door.

"You're going to the mall on Black Friday?" Danel said in disbelief. "In New York?" She stopped in her tracks and stared at her crazy sister. "Are you insane?"

"Yes, maybe, now come on!" Amera said, opening the door and stepping out onto the landing.

Danel followed close behind and putting her shoes on at the same time. Without seeing where she was going, Danel ran right into Amera. "Dude, what's wrong with you? Why'd you..." Danel looked up at Amera's face and followed her gaze to see Piotr, looking just as dumbstruck as Amera, coming up the walkway. "...stop?"

* * *

Pietro wandered around the base, trying to get used to all the new additions to the group from the raid of the govenment building. "This is insane," he muttered to himself as he came upon the TV room, which was now packed, everyone gathered around watching Brokeback Mountain. "Ew..." he said and walked on, trying to get the image of Heath Ledger kissing Jake Gyllenhaal out of his mind. He was looking for Piotr, whom he had become friendly with, to see if he wanted to go see a movie with him and Pyro, but he was nowhere to be found. He had checked Piotr's room, the bathroom, the kitchen, and now he made his way back to the room he shared with John. "I can't find Piotr anywhere!" Pietro said as he flopped into the chair.

Pyro looked away from his book, Diary by Chuck Palaniuk. "Maybe he's taking a piss?"

"No, I checked the bathroom, and every other room in this damned base and he's not here!"

"Of course he's not," Magneto said, having come in just a second before. "I've gotten my use of him, so I let him go. He doesn't know any of our next plans anyway." He turned and left the room again.

Pietro sighed and looked grumpy for a moment, then jumped up and ran to the doorway. "If he's gone, can't I have his room?"

"No." Magneto said, and kept walking.

"Damn it all to hell..." Pietro flopped once again into the chair.

"Worth a shot," John said.

* * *

**As has been the theme the last few chapters, I repeat: Please review!**

**Also, I'm going to have a poll - Who will win the upcoming Battle of the Bands? King of Hearts or Autofocus? You get to decide! Please vote!**


	12. New Heart For Christmas

**Chapter Twelve**

**New Heart For Christmas**

"Are you ever going to talk to him again?" Oliver asked, sitting and reading Amera's mangas on her bed. She sat in her computer chair, playing Panic at the Disco's "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" on her guitar. She was playing it rather harder than she normally would, since she was angry at Piotr and Piotr was the one who had gotten her the guitar for her birthday a month ago. "He didn't really do anything wrong."

Amera glared at Oliver. "There was an attack on a government building last week, a government building that held dangerous mutants. You don't think that Piotr helped Magneto? Oh, and the whole thing about him going against his own morals-" she hit the strings forcefully. "-and-" even harder. "-breaking up with me!" She hit the strings so hard that her first E string broke. "Damn it."

Pierce was sitting on Danel's bed, practicing his Japanese characters. "Let me fix that," Pierce said, getting up and walking over to her. Amera looked confused, but he placed his hands on the string, put the broken ends together, and they mended.

"What the..." Amera said, staring at him amazed.

"Another power. I kind of wonder how many I'm going to have," Pierce said. "I discovered it about a week ago, when we were at the mall and Kylia dropped that ornament in the Hallmark store." He smirked. "She's adorable."

"Yeah... too bad you aren't attracted to her," Amera stated, then gasped and covered her mouth. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to say that!"

"That's okay... It's true." Pierce said, then after a moment of awkward silence, they all returned to what they were doing.

After a while, Megan, the cat-girl we haven't had in the story since chapter two, came into the room. "Hey, guys?"

"Hey Megan," Oliver said.

"What's up?" Amera asked.

"Well, I'm heading the Christmas party committee, and I was wondering if Auto Focus would play it?" Megan said, a pleading look on her face. "Because we've already heard King of Hearts, and the school is kind of wondering how you guys are," she added when nobody answered.

Amera looked at her slyly. "And Sakura wants to hear her competition, right?"

Megan's glance shifted side to side. "Well... yeah..."

"Okay, that's settled. We'll do it, and we'll blow King of Hearts out of the water."

* * *

The day of the Christmas party arrived, December 20th, and Auto Focus spent the entire day practicing in the basement since none of them were on the decorating committee like they had been for Halloween. They weren't going to do any of the songs that they were preparing for the competition, but they had a pretty solid set ready. The party would be at seven o'clock that night, so they had agreed to go get dressed at 5:30. Before going upstairs, however, they had to set all the instruments up on the stage, just like at Halloween.

They all wore black and red, but they had to be nice clothes. Amera wore a red plaid pleated skirt and a black lace up top with beaded embellishments. Danel wore black pants with pale red pinstripes and a red shirt with the shoulders cut out. Pierce wore all black, a nice button down shirt and pants, along with a red tie. He had his hair parted to the side, emo style. Oliver was wearing a red shirt, black pants, and a black tie. Aykra wore a black dress that reached her knees, which tied like a halter top behind her neck.

Vaughn acted as DJ once again, and everyone was gathered in the foyer for the party. The decorations were beautiful, with wreaths and a huge Christmas tree in one corner, where everyone had put their presents over the past week. Amera danced with Oliver when "Wherever You Will Go" by The Calling was played, but she keep shooting murderous looks over towards Piotr, who sat alone on the staircase. Oliver, knowing that she was doing so, turned so she was now facing where Pierce was dancing with Kylia. She couldn't be sure, but she could have sworn that he had been watching the two of them, but looked away quickly. Whatever, she thought to herself, and returned to dancing in peace. Soon, a Britney Spears song came on, so she made an excuse to leave the room. "I have to pee," she told Oliver, then ran off, leaving Oliver to laugh silently.

She left the dance floor, heading towards the hallway by the staircase, because there was a bathroom that way. She didn't even glance in Piotr's direction, but he saw her heading in his general direction. Seizing this opportunity to try to talk to her, he followed her to the hallway. He grabbed her arm gently, not wanting to hurt her, and spun her around. She was pressed up against the wall. "Amera!"

"Let go of me," Amera demanded.

"No, not until you talk to me," Piotr said just as forcefully. "I've been back for almost an entire month-"

"Let me go, Piotr!" she repeated.

"Amera, I love you!"

She stopped struggling against him and stared at him in awe. "This isn't about you loving me! It's about you going against everything you believe in to save me! You really think I wanted you to compromise your own morals? I've been angry at you because you decided I was more important than everyone else!"

Piotr let go of her, but neither of them moved away. "I... I'm sorry."

"You helped Magneto. You helped dangerous mutants escape from where they were being held, and-"

"I said I was sorry. I didn't want to help him." Piotr said, looking at the rug.

"Well, you did." An awkward silence ensued. Suddenly, Piotr kissed her. For a moment, she kissed him back, then pushed him away. "Piotr!"

"You're underneath mistletoe," he shrugged, then with a smirk went into the boys' bathroom.

Amera growled, then turned to head back to the party, forgetting her ruse of needing to pee, and saw Oliver standing there. "Oliver?"

"I knew that you two would get back together." he said, a faint smile on his face. "I'm just glad I got some attention while I did."

"What? No, we're not - what are you talking about?" Amera said, flustered.

"I had a crush on you since you came here, but you never even noticed. Then perfect Piotr..." He turned red. "Well, we're still friends, right?"

"Oliver, what-"

"I knew we wouldnt last, Amera. You don't need to say anything," he said, then hugged her. "Besides, I don't think either of us were in love anyway." He looked at her with a wide smile. "You still love him. So forgive him for being an idiot and get your man." He left her in the hall feeling immensely confused.

"And now, I have the pleasure of presenting to you the band the entire school has been looking forward to hearing, Auto Focus!" Vaughn announced.

"Damn!" Amera said, then ran from the hall and up to the stage.

She immediately started playing Three Small Words, from Josie and the Pussycats. "It took six whole hours, and five whole days for all your lies to come undone, and those three small words were way too late, can't you see that I'm the one..." From there they played Silver and Cold by AFI, Bring Me To Life by Evanescence, XO by Fall Out Boy, When September Ends by Green Day, Sadie Hawkins Dance by Relient K, Addicted by Simple Plan, and finally Helena by My Chemical Romance, all to great amounts of applause. Their set ended at 9:00. At 9:30, the gift exchange started, so the foyer was filled with talk and laughter and the opening of gifts instead of techno music and dancing. The twins sat with all their friends, including Piotr, although Amera avoided him like the plague. "Um, hello?" Oliver whispered while everyone was distracted with their presents. "Why are you still avoiding him? Did you miss the break up in the hallway?"

"No, but-" Amera stopped.

"You love him. Just accept it. Ooh, thanks for the Cowboy Bebop manga, that rocks." he added as he unwrapped the gift from her. "Besides, I think I might like someone else." And with that, he stood and sat next to Gambit. (I'm not saying that's who he likes! That would be weird!)

Amera sat and agonized in her head a few more minutes, subconsciously opening her presents at the same time. Suddenly she stood and walked over to where Piotr sat on the floor with Rogue, Bobby, and Khadrim. She sat next to him and looked him in the eye. "I'm sorry too." She took a deep breath. "And..." she glanced at Oliver. "And I love you."

He grinned widely then kissed her. "You're underneath mistletoe," he said with a smirk. Amera looked up, and sure enough, there was mistletoe attatched to the stair railing above them.

Amera looked back at him. "Fuck the mistletoe." she said, then kissed him passionately, to many catcalls and cheers from all over the foyer. A moment later, they were being lectured by Ororo for not keeping it PG and letting their hands roam. Oh, and Amera saying "fuck."

After a ten minute talking-to, the gift opening resumed. After all the packages were opened in their group, Momiji suddenly stood from where he sat next to Oliver. He was holding envelopes, and he handed one each to Amera, Danel, and Pierce. "Merry Christmas!" he said quite happily. The three of them opened their packages. Amera nearly fainted when she saw what was inside.

"Two round-trip tickets to Japan?!" she cried. "How can you afford that? And for each of us?!"

"My dad is a millionaire business mogul," Momiji said with the straightest face. "And you each get to take anyone else you want!" he said.

Danel didnt question for a second the fact that she was going to take Gambit. That is until Amera said, "Hey, this means you can get some real time with John!"

"Oh," Danel said, looking at the floor. "Yeah..." She glanced at Gambit from the corner of her eye, and he looked almost disappointed. She turned to him instantly. "You're going to go with me, okay?" He perked right up after that.

"Well, now that I've made up with my hunky boy toy, he's of course going with me!" Amera said.

"So who's Pierce taking?" Rogue asked. "Kylia, right?"

"Nah," he replied. "She broke up with me out on the dance floor tonight. Said she likes this Jay kid or something." He shrugged. "No sweat though. We weren't really into each other at all."

"The question still stands: Who are you taking?" Bobby said.

Pierce was silent a moment as he thought about it. "Well, I'll take my best friend, Oliver."

Oliver looked shocked. "What? Really? Awesome!"

"And, of course, me!" Momiji said, swinging his legs back and forth in his chair. He was holding his ticket and waving it like a fan. "The flight is in two days, so we've gotta pack tomorrow!" He looked over at Amera. "I asked your mom if it was okay already, well, I had Professor Xavier ask you mom for me, and she said it was okay, so that's why I went ahead and got the tickets!"

"Well, I'm gonna go ahead upstairs then," Amera said, and some of them protested. "If I dont go start packing now, I'm going to end up forgetting something!" she smiled and sprinted up the stairs.

* * *

**Review review review!**

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	13. No Ordinary Love

**Please please please go vote in my poll! Who will win the Battle of the bands? Go to my profile to vote.**

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* * *

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**Chapter Thirteen**

**No Ordinary Love**

Tokyo, one of the busiest cities in the world. A group of seven young American mutant teenagers loving every second of the crowds, the skyscrapers, the Japanese culture. They were extremely lucky that three of the said teens spoke fluent Japanese (Amera, Danel, and Pierce), and two of them knew conversational (Oliver and Momiji). Two of them were completely lost on what the hell anyone was saying (Piotr and Gambit). This was their first day in Japan, and already having taken their luggage to the hotel, they were shopping. They went into one of the most packed bookstores any of them had ever seen, the aisles were barely big enough for one person to get between the shelves. Amera's goal was to get a lot of manga, so she started hunting it down, Momiji, Danel, Piotr, and Gambit right behind her. Pierce and Oliver opted to just browse. "So, why'd you break up with Amera?" Pierce asked.

"Well, neither of us loved the other," Oliver said. "And I like someone else," he confessed, and he felt his face turn red.

"Really? Who?" Pierce said, casting a sideways glance at his friend. "Come on, I'm your best friend! Tell!" he poked him in the ribs.

"Quit it!" Oliver laughed, hitting him back. "I'm not going to tell, never."

"Fine then, be that way," Pierce said with a huff, crossing his arms and looking away. They kept browsing. After a few minutes, Pierce hoped to get Oliver to answer by startling him. "Who do you like?"

"That ploy isn't going to work. It didn't work in Harry Potter, it's not going to work for-" Oliver wasn't watching where he was going and tripped on the corner of one of the shelves, falling into Pierce. Oliver raised himself up and looked down at Pierce's startled face beneath him. "...you..." Oliver said, then kissed Pierce there on the floor. Then they both looked up at the giggles of some nearby school girls. "Uh... konnichiwa?" Oliver said nervously. The giggling girls turned and ran away toward the front of the shop.

"Guys, where are you?" Danel could be heard from nearby. "We're ready to go!" She turned onto their aisle. "What are you doing on the floor?"

"I tripped," Oliver said truthfully. He stood up and helped Pierce to his feet. Pierce's face was pink. Oliver turned red when he saw this.

"What is with you two?" Danel asked. Neither of them said anything. "Well, whatever. Let's go." She turned and headed to the front of the store, where everyone else was as well.

"Hey, Danel, these girls said there were two boys kissing down one of the aisles!" Amera said excitedly when they reached them. "I wonder where they are?" she added, looking back at the shelves as though wishing for the boys to pop out from there.

Danel looked at Oliver and Pierce, a knowing look on her face, because she could put two and two together. Oliver put a finger to his lips and Pierce shook his head, making sure only Danel saw this. Danel's jaw dropped, but she composed herself once Amera and the others looked back. "Come on, we've got to get to the Tokyo Tower before sundown!" she said, then they left the shop, the giggling schoolgirls behind them. Luckily, before they got too annoyed, the schoolgirls turned down a side street and the giggling faded away.

They finally reached Tokyo Tower after taking a bus, and the sun was just starting to go down. They got to one of the platforms in a tourist group and leaned on the railing together to look at the city that stretched out below them. "Wow!" Momiji cried happily. "It's so pretty!"

They stood and watched the sun go down as the lights in the city turned on. It looked like millions of stars in technicolor all over the city. Momiji dashed off on his own, but within sight of the others, to play with some birds. Danel and Gambit separated themselves from the group, and Amera and Piotr left Pierce and Oliver alone. Oliver nervously looked straight down at the ground, hundreds of feet below them. He wasn't sure how to act, now that he had kissed Pierce. Pierce was feeling just as awkward, fiddling with his thumbs against the railing. Oliver finally spoke. "I'm sorry." he said lamely. "For kissing you, I mean."

Pierce looked at Oliver, and Oliver looked back, feeling his face burn. Pierce swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and said, "Don't be." Pierce took Oliver's hand in his, leaned forward, and kissed him.

Amera and Piotr couldn't see any of this, being on the far side of the platform from them. Gambit and Danel, however, could see the two boys making out. Many other couples around them were ogling them. "See, just like I said," Danel said. "I don't think either of them want anyone to know, though, so keep it to yourself, okay?"

"But why you tell Gambit if they want it secret?" Gambit asked.

Danel opened her mouth to say something, then closed it again. "I dont know!" she said, exasperated. "Ugh, I hate secrets!" She turned back to look at the cityscape. "I can't believe we're in Japan!" she said happily after a moment. "And I'm glad to be here with you," she added.

"Rather than your boyfriend?" Gambit asked.

Danel looked at the railing she had her hand on at the moment. "Well, yes. You're my best friend." she said, then looked at him. He was quite close to her and looking at her with care and concern in his eyes. She started to lean closer to him, and he to her. She placed her gloved hand to his chest, then pulled away, suddenly remembering that she had dangerous powers. "I'm sorry..." she said, then looked at the rail again.

"Gambit sorry too," he said with a blush. "Gambit shouldn't have tried to..."

"No, it's my powers, I dont want to possess you... everytime I possess someone, I can see their memories and thoughts... I don't want to do that to you." Danel said.

"You sure it's not because of your boyfriend, cherrie?" Gambit asked.

"Uh..." Danel hadn't even thought about John. He had completely flown from her mind when she had been about to kiss Gambit. Just then, Amera and Piotr approached. "You guys ready? It's freaking cold out here!" she shivered. "I think I'm actually going to freeze!"

"Yeah, let's go," Pierce said as he and Oliver met up with them, Momiji in tow. Both of the boys had pink faces, although rather rosier than the rest of the group.

* * *

All too soon, the day came when they had to go back home to the Institute. They had all been good little boys and girls, no hanky panky, and came home with tons of junk they had bought overseas. As they were unpacking, the excitement died quickly when Rogue rushed into the dormintory. "Amera! Danel! Professor Xavier wants to see you, now! He said it's urgent!"

"I didn't do it!" Amera said. "Me and Piotr were good little monkeys!"

"No, I think something happened, he wants you now!" Rogue said, grabbing each of their wrists and dragging them to the doorway.

The girls were apprehensive as they left down the hallway, not knowing what to expect. They finally reached Professor Xavier's office and slowly opened the door. "You may want to sit down, girls." he said as the girls walked in. They obeyed, taking the two seats in front of his desk. "I have some rather distressing news for you."

The girls looked worried. "What happened?" Danel asked. "Something happened, right?"

"Sadly, yes," Xavier answered. "I've just recieved word that your parents have been in an accident." The twins gasped, Amera flopped back in her chair and Danel put her hand over her mouth. "The other driver was drunk, and was arrested at the scene. Both of your parents are currently in critical condition."

"They're going to be okay, right?" Amera demanded. "They'll be alright?"

Xavier shook his head. "I don't know." Danel started to sob, while Amera was feeling so many emotions she just became angry. "You two will be going back home to Arizona for the next week and stay with your aunt Cheryl at your home, as she requested." Danel nodded in response, Amera looked at the armrest of her chair. "I do hope your parents will be alright. Now go get packed, Ororo and Scott will fly you home in an hour."

Both of them were too stunned to speak as they walked back to their dorm. They silently started getting their suitcases ready to go, dumping the remnants of their Japan trip onto their beds before packing fresh laundry. "Hey, what did the Professor want?" Rogue asked. Neither of them answered. "Are you okay? Why are you packing?"

Kitty and Jubilee came in giggling at that moment, then stopped at the sight of the twins packing. "What's going on?" Rogue shushed Kitty and beckoned her forward. She whispered in her ear about how the Professor had urgently called them to his office. Suddenly, Danel broke down crying, face down in her pillow. Amera threw her pillow at the wall and rummaged quite angrily through a drawer.

"Are you okay?" Rogue asked quietly, sitting gently beside Danel on her bed. She rubbed her back.

Danel sat up, rubbing her eyes that were now red and puffy. "Our parents... They were in an accident... they... they might not..." she sputtered in tears. Rogue hugged her tightly, and Danel cried into her shoulder.

It seemed like an eternity before Ororo showed up at the door, Piotr and Gambit at her heels. Both of them looked worried. Apparently, Xavier had informed them about what was going on. "Are you girls ready?" Ororo asked.

"Yeah," Amera said, grabbing her suitcase roughly and storming out of the door. Piotr followed her down the hall. Gambit walked in and offered to carry Danel's suitcase for her, and she agreed. He walked with her, his arm wrapped around her shoulder.

Their cases were in the jet, and Ororo and Scott were making some last pre-flight preparations. The girls were saying goodbye to Piotr and Gambit. Gambit was hugging Danel, while Amera had her arms crossed and she was looking at the ground. Piotr's hands were on her shoulders, and he was trying to get her to look at him. When Danel climbed into the jet and Gambit left, Amera suddenly burst out, "How could everything go from being great, us in Japan and everything, to shit?" she cried. Tears finally escaped her. "My mom and dad are going to die, and-"

"Shh," Piotr said, hugging her tightly. "Don't think negatively. Everything will be alright." He kissed her forehead. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she said grumpily, then trudged into the jet.

* * *

"We are gathered here to celebrate the memory of Lily Ann and Edward James Walker," the minister said. Everyone in the church was dressed in black. Danel and Amera were staring at the floor, not wanting to catch anyone's gaze. Their aunt was next to them, crying her eyes out. Danel was quietly sobbing, but Amera just sat there, having cried too much over the past week to have any tears left. She sat milling over the memories of their parents, and remembering something she found out when she was ten years old. Edward hadn't been their real father, and now she decided there in the church that she would ask Xavier if he could find out who their biological father had been.

The girls sat silently together during the reception as well. After an hour, a boy approached them. He was cute, and he had black hair parted on the side and he had pierced ears. "Hey," he said with a smile. "Mind if I join you?" The girls shrugged, so he sat beside them. "Do you remember me?" he asked them. The girls looked at him, then shrugged again. "I'm your cousin, Andrew. From California? We haven't seen each other since we were about thirteen."

"Oh, yeah." Amera said. "I remember. We used to go out to your treehouse in the summer and listen to Green Day." She smiled faintly. "And you said you knew that we weren't really related." She frowned then, and her eyebrows creased. "And if I remember correctly, you kissed me."

"What?" Danel said, now looing up from the floor again.

"Wow, you really do remember," Andrew said with a blush.

"Yeah," Amera said. "You look so different."

"So do you. Your hair is black now. Then again, so is mine." he chuckled. "Well, my family is in town for the next couple days, do you want to go do something together tomorrow?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Amera said. "There's so much to talk about, since we havent seen each other for four years."

"Great," he smiled, then got up and walked over to where his family sat at a table.

* * *

Danel had the sneaking suspicion that Andrew had a crush on Amera after spending the last day before returning to the Institute with him and his parents at their hotel. But finally, it was time for them to go back to the Institute, having already missed two days of school. Once they got back, before even saying hello to her boyfriend, Amera went directly to Xavier's office. "Ah, welcome back, Amera."

"Hi professor," she said. "Can I ask you something?"

Xavier sighed. "I know what you're going to ask."

"So you knew, right? You knew that my dad wasn't really my real dad?" Amera asked.

"Yes, your mother told me. She said that she didn't want you digging into it. She also said that it would be useless to ask for help." Xavier said.

"What? Why?"

"She said your real father went to work on some secret government project before she even knew she was going to have the two of you," Xavier answered. "And that he never came back."

"But that doesn't mean he's dead. It just means he disappeared!" Amera said. "Please, please, Professor, will you look for our real dad?"

Xavier sat in silence for a moment. "Yes, alright." He did not, however, tell her that he had the suspicion that he already knew who that would turn out to be.

* * *

**Do _you_ know who their real father is? Mebbe you do, mebbe you don't. Just a few more chapters till the great reveal! Arg, this isn't a game show... So is the battle of the bands! Vote in poll now!**


	14. Hell And High Water

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Hell And High Water**

_Dear John,_

The letter always started the same, but Danel never knew how to put her heart into words. She knew she didn't love him anymore, but how to put that on paper? She sighed, "Come on Danel, it shouldn't be this hard to break up with a boy… should it?"

"Hell no!" Amera said from behind, startling Danel, who hadn't realized she was in the room and peering over her shoulder. "If you like Gambit now, just break it off with John and quit being a pussy about it!"

"You put it so bluntly," Danel said with a grimace. "Why don't you write the damn letter then?"

"Um, because he's not my boyfriend?" Amera said. "If you're planning on sending that today, you might want to hurry up. The mail comes in an hour." She grabbed a Japanese book off of her shelf and left.

"This isn't easy you know!" Danel shouted after her.

"What's not easy?" Rogue asked as she came walking in.

"Oh, just this letter I'm writing to John." Danel answered.

"Finally dumping him so you can go out with Gambit and have a clear conscience?" Rogue asked.

"Tact! Hasn't anyone around here heard of it?" Danel cried exasperatedly and flopped face first into her pillow. She heard a rustling as Rogue was going through her stuff. She peeked out of the corner of her eye and saw Rogue putting stuff into a box. "What are you doing?" Danel asked. "You're not leaving, are you?"

"No," Rogue laughed. "Us older kids are getting our own rooms so the dorms can be vacated for the new younger kids coming in all the time," she explained. "I was going to tell you once you were done sulking."

"We get our own rooms?" Danel said with a wide grin. "Finally, no more sharing with you crazies!"

"Oh, ha ha."

* * *

"What are you doing?" John asked as he sat next to Sean on the chair in her room that she now shared with another mutant girl.

"Trying to listen to Panic at the disco in peace," she answered. "Which has now been shot thanks to your unappealing habit of bothering me right when I want to be left alone."

"Well, maybe there's a reason I'm bothering you." He grinned at her.

"Well, it better be a good reason, because I swear if it's not-" She stopped mid-rant as he placed a CD before her. "The new AFI CD?" She looked at him. "How? It's one AM on the day it comes out…" She looked at the CD fondly. "Why would you go to the store at midnight for me?"

"To show you that you don't have to be so bitter all the time. Some people would like to hang out with you." John said.

"Hey, could you please not leave your Midol sitting out in the bathroom, you brat-" Pietro started as he walked into the door. "Oh. My. God. That's the new AFI-how did you-when-I HATE YOU!" And with that he stormed out of the room.

"God, he is such an idiot." Sean said as she placed the brand new disc into her CD player for her and John to enjoy.

Pietro suddenly appeared at the door again, holding an envelope in his hand and waving it back and forth. "One of the newbies just gave me this to give to you. It's from your girlfriend," he teased.

John jumped up and grabbed the envelope, hastily ripping it open. He was grinning ear to ear, but as he kept reading his face kept drooping. He looked up at the two cousins with a murderous glare in his eyes. "I feel like a little bit of destruction. Care to join me?"

* * *

The door slammed open at two o' clock in the morning, causing Danel to bolt upright. Professor Xavier, Logan, and Ororo walked in, along with Amera, Gambit, Pierce, and Momiji. Logan rushed over and picked her up and proceeded to leave the room. "What's going on?" she cried, noticing the scared look on everyone's faces.

"You're in danger," Professor Xavier answered. "John has launched an independent attack on the city. Amera was… in my office at the time I became aware of it and she informed me that you had just ended the relationship with him, correct?"

"Yes?" Danel answered. "Could you please put me down? I can walk, you know!"

"Sorry," Logan said, and set her down on the floor.

"So what do we do?" Danel asked.

"We take you downstairs, where we can keep you safe, while the X-Men are going to go stop his rampage." Xavier explained.

"So I'm just supposed to sit around here? And do nothing? What if I can talk him down, or say I'll go out with him again, or-"

"No, Danel. You are going to stay here."

"Then I'm going." Amera said.

"No, you're not.

"Why not! He's not after me, he's after Danel, and he's saved me before, and-"

"That was before, Amera, this time he is completely out of control. Besides, you are in no condition to be fighting."

"What?" Amera asked.

"The deaths of your parents were just over a week ago, you're still in denial and ready to 'go off the deep end' I believe is the phrase," Xavier said. "You are staying here. You are all staying here."

The group entered a room in the basement level that looked almost exactly like the medical wing. They found Khadrim asleep in there. Upon their entrance, he stirred, and after seeing the quizzical looks on their faces he said, "Uh, Oliver was snoring, so I came down here to get absolute silence. Not to mention he ate too many baked beans at dinner, if you catch my drift."

"Okay, well, we'd better get going, right Professor?" Logan asked. "Gotta go wake up all the brats."

As the adults left the room, an awkward silence came over the teenagers in the room. Momiji fell asleep in the place Khadrim had vacated. After a few moments of silence, Amera stood up and walked toward the door. "Hey, you heard the professor. We're supposed to stay down here." Pierce objected.

"No, Danel is supposed to stay down here. I feel restless when I'm all cooped up." Amera said.

Khadrim stood up as well and headed to the door. "Yeah, uh, I'm not even involved in this whole ordeal, so, I'm just gonna go."

They exchanged glances, then left the room. When they shut the door behind them, Amera asked, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Their eyes met, and then both of them hauled ass toward the X-jet. When they got to the door of the hangar, neither of them breathing too hard because of all their training, they peeked around the corner to make sure they wouldn't get caught. They could see Bobby and Piotr talking on the other side of the jet, Bobby's back toward them. They slowly walked forward, trying to not get spotted by Piotr, but unfortunately he did see them. His eyes met Amera's for a moment. The two hopeful stowaways stopped in their tracks as Amera silently pleaded with Piotr across the room. After what seemed like forever, Piotr looked away and continued his conversation like nothing was happening, although kept glancing at Amera as they made their way into the jet. They hid in the compartments beneath each of the long seats in the back, right beside the jet's entrance. They were hid not a moment too soon, because as they hid in complete darkness they heard metallic footsteps coming up the ramp. They were going to go into battle with their old friend.

* * *

The flight seemed to take forever to Amera, who was crammed in a small cargo area under the rear seats with her head bent down, but the jet finally landed. Her neck was cramped from laying like that for so long, but she waited until all the metallic footsteps had passed. She waited a minute, then went to open the door. Then she heard Logan call out, "I'll be right there, save a couple of punches for me!" and come back on board.

Amera stayed perfectly still, not wanting to be overheard by Logan's over-sensitive hearing. The footsteps faded again. She let out the breath she had been holding and went to open the compartment door when it was thrown open before she touched it. Before she could understand what had happened, she was pulled out by the arm and shoved down onto one of the rear passenger seats at the same moment as Khadrim, hitting her back on a grip bar. "Ow!" she yelled sharply, then looked up into the eyes of a very angry Logan. "Um… hi?"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Logan growled. "Xavier gave you direct instructions and you disobeyed him!"

"I can help!" Khadrim shouted back. "You've seen what I can do in my dragon form!"

"And that's exactly why you need to be back at home!" Logan yelled back. "We don't need you destroying half of New York City like you destroyed the Danger Room! Why do you think you haven't been back in there since?"

Khadrim fell into silence. Logan turned his attention to Amera. "You… Your powers are nowhere near finished growing. This is too dangerous for a novice like you," Logan said, lowering his voice. "Both of you."

"Can't I at least try?" Amera asked. "Please? It's my sister at stake here!"

Logan looked at her. "I understand, but you can't." He turned to leave, turning back to look at her with a glance of pity before descending down the hatch. It closed behind him.

"Well now what?" Khadrim said, sighing and leaning back. "You know he locked it."

"I thought you were a tech wiz," Amera said.

"Yeah, but hacking a security panel on a jet so advanced that the government doesn't even have one?" Khadrim asked.

Amera sighed with a frown, then suddenly grinned. "No one said you had to hack the system. Just _hack_ it."

"Ah, I get you," Khadrim said, standing and changing his right arm into a sword. "Sorry, Professor X," he muttered before plunging the blade into the keypad.

The door slid open with a satisfying whoosh and the two of them ran into the night. The snow in Central Park crunched beneath their feet as they ran through the dark towards a large pillar of fire, obviously Pyro's handiwork. They exchanged an exhilarated glance, then sprinted toward the action.

Running the distance from the jet toward the fire was much different than running through the halls of the mansion, the distance was much larger here. They stopped halfway, hiding in the shadows of a giant oak tree. They collected their breath, then began to run again before being pitched face first into the ground.

Amera raised herself up on her arms but stayed seated, turning to see who had pushed them both. No one was there. Her lip had hit the ground hard and had split, and Khadrim was now sporting a gashed cheek. He was also looking around for the mystery attacker.

Amera moved to stand up, but was pulled back down by her long hair. The enemy wouldn't let go; Amera turned her head as much as she could to see Khadrim's neck-length white hair was also in the grasp of the unknown person. This time the enemy shoved their faces together, making Amera's forehead ram into Khadrim's bottom lip, which split immediately. Ignoring the pain, they both looked around, spotting a girl, about 16 years old with white hair, sticking halfway out of the ground, a wicked smile on her face and wiggling her fingers at them. As Amera watched, she vanished into the ground.

When the girl didn't return, Khadrim and Amera helped each other up. The noise from the fires had grown louder, meaning it was closer. Perhaps the girl had gone to alert Pyro of their whereabouts. "You okay to go out there?" Khadrim asked.

"Are you kidding?" Amera laughed. "I used to get in worse fights back in Phoenix," she scoffed. She pulled her hair into a band to ready herself for a real fight, then noticed Khadrim looking at her. "What?"

"Your lip isn't bleeding anymore," he noted.

She put a finger to it, and found it healed up beneath the wet blood. "Huh, I guess Logan was right. Looks like my powers are still growing."

Khadrim said nothing in response as he sidled up next to the tree's trunk and peered around it. The other mutants were in range of sight now, and he could just see the white-haired girl in the fray. Amera joined him, pressing up against the trunk. Just in time, she jumped at Khadrim, pulling him away from the tree and to the ground, covering him in her liquid form; a second later the tree burst into flames. She reverted back to her solid form, looking back but not getting off of Khadrim in case of another attack. Unfortunately, she was yanked away from him and slammed into another tree.

She was held in place by a boy their age, 17 or 18, who also had white hair. She wondered for a split second whether they were related before she realized how foolish it was to lose her focus in their predicament. She happened to glance at Khadrim, who was fighting the girl in the shadows of a tree not far away. Then she spotted Pyro, walking towards them with a menacing glare in his eyes. As he neared, the white haired boy let go of the front of her uniform, letting her stand freely. Her focus wandered once more as she asked herself where all the X-Men had disappeared to.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Pyro said calmly, but it sounded insane in that tone. "Stowing away? Tsk, tsk, Amera. Oh, wait, you're in your uniform. So that makes you Hydra, right?"

"What are you doing, John?!" She shouted. She regretted saying it a second later, as he grabbed her arm and flipped her head over heels and slammed her to the ground.

"PYRO!" He yelled in her face, then stood and put his heavy boot on her throat. She struggled for breath as she grasped at his ankle. Her vision started to fade, but she could see Khadrim in the distance, too far away and too wrapped in his fight with the white-haired kids to spot her in danger. Pyro lit the flame-throwers attached to his uniform and the fire encircled them. He leaned down to her, making the weight on her neck unbearable. "If I kill you now, she'd be devastated, wouldn't she."

The fire around them was creeping closer; she could feel the intense heat all over her body. She could hardly draw breath now, and her vision was dark around the edges. The struggling against his weight was getting her nowhere but dead. She looked at his malicious grin and felt an intense hatred rush through her. She did not have the strength any longer to change to her liquid form, as she had been to stupid to think of it before now. She reached deep inside herself, all the hate, all the anger she had pent up, from the deaths of her parents, from being treated like a child, from being killed…

The grip on his leg suddenly strengthened. His grin faltered as her grasp kept getting tighter and tighter; in fact, it was so strong his ankle felt like is was about to break. Then he heard the rushing sound. He looked down at her; her nose was bleeding and her eyes had rolled back in her head, but her grip was tighter than ever. He looked up as the rushing grew louder and louder. Then he saw it; a mass of water was making its way across the park. "That's impossible!" he yelled, yanking his foot free with a sickening pop and staggering back.

Amera looked unconscious; however, her body began to rise into the air. She righted herself, facing Pyro, looking ready to kill; an image of terror. Pyro saw the fight between Sean and Khadrim had halted, for they were also transfixed on the wall of water as it came ever closer. Pietro, having spotted it before the others, had fled minutes ago. Pyro started to wish Sean hadn't transported the X-Men to Europe, so they'd have someone here to save their asses.

Her arms suddenly flew out to the sides as the water gathered in a great force behind her. He realized almost too late that she was about to attack. Her arms sprang together, making the water rush around her, bee-lining straight for Pyro, nowhere else. The others could barely make it to safety, as Sean vanished through the shadows behind the trees and Khadrim had transformed into a dragon and flown to a safe distance. Pyro was stuck next to the tree, with nowhere to run, forcing him to fight.

Just before the water hit, he lit a fire and attempted to make a barrier. For a moment, it seemed like it would work; the water and fire pressed against each other, element versus element, but seconds after they had met, the water overpowered his pyrokinesis. The water pressed him back, shoving him against the tree, trapping him under a torrent of water. The force of it knocked the wind out of him, and he soon fell unconscious.

When the water was all gone, laying at varying levels across the entire park, Amera collapsed to the muddy ground. Khadrim rushed over to her side and checked her vitals; her pulse was racing and both nostrils had blood gushing. He picked her up as gently as he could and ran back to the jet, hoping he could fly it without Logan's Danger Room simulation training.

Magneto stepped out of the shadows and watched the boy carry the girl to their jet. He had no idea she had been capable of such things. He needed to add her to his collection, no matter what it took.

* * *

_Woo! Action! Please vote in the poll on my profile, there's only a couple of chapters till the Battle of the Bands! And please review!_


	15. All In The Family

An update! Le GASP!

Notes to people who actually HAVE seen the Wolverine movie - I HAVEN'T SEEN IT!!!!! So I made up an all new history for Logan. Yeah, so there. Don't kill me please, I really want to see it! But... things needed to be this way. I HAD to make his history MINE. So... yeah...

**Chapter Fifteen**

**All In The Family**

Her other senses came back before she opened her eyes; she heard the shuffling of feet nearby, the air smelled of antiseptic and soap. She felt the soft cotton sheets against her skin, tasted the faint rusty flavor of blood in the back of her throat. She finally opened her eyes to painfully bright white lights.

She recognized the infirmary, having been in here plenty of times before. Once her eyes had adjusted, she looked to her right to see Xavier next to her, Danel pacing behind him. Pierce and Oliver were sitting in chairs even further back, next to the door, fast asleep. Khadrim stood silently next to them, watching her in concern.

"Welcome back," Xavier said softly. Danel gasped and stopped pacing, coming around to Amera's other side.

"So, how long was I out this time?" she croaked.

"Nearly 37 hours," Xavier responded. "You gave us quite a scare."

Amera looked at the ceiling. "I can't remember… John was… what happened?"

"As I've told you before, your powers are still growing," he began. "It would seem as though, from the information we received from Khadrim, that a stronger, more powerful version of yourself, buried in your subconscious, took control of your body to save your life that night."

"Huh?" she asked, staring blankly at him.

"You went into a sort of, I don't know, a trance," Khadrim said, walking over next to Xavier. He had scabbed lips and stitches in his cheek, along with a few large bruises. "You made the entire lake rush out over the park like a tsunami. It was scary."

Khadrim said something was scary? Now Amera was worried. "Am I dangerous?"

Xavier gave her a small smile. "I don't believe you yourself are. But when your life is threatened… perhaps. You and I will work together on this, train you to harness this part of your brain so you don't lose control again."

"Yeah. What a thing to wake up to after a 37 hour nap," Amera said, giving a weak laugh.

Xavier looked at her with a strained expression. "There's more to tell you."

"What else could there be?" she asked.

"I've located your father."

The room was silent for a long moment. Danel looked at Amera murderously. "You didn't tell me you were looking for our father," she growled.

"You didn't want to find him," she said back. "I've wondered about him ever since Mom told us that Edward wasn't our Dad. Seven years, Danel!"

"We're better off not knowing!" Danel snapped back.

Amera ignored her. "So he's alive?" she asked Xavier.

"Yes, he's very much alive… and he's arriving here this afternoon," he replied. "From Prague, I believe."

"Great, now we have to meet him too," Danel groaned.

"Now if you'll excuse me, my first class starts in a few minutes," Xavier said, then rolled from the room.

Khadrim stepped closer, holding a bundle of clothes. "I got these for you from your room," he said. His eyes met hers for a moment and her heart started to race. "Since you're all healed up already. Figured you wouldn't want to walk back through the halls wearing a hospital gown."

"Thanks," she said, pulling her eyes from his and looking at the clothes he placed on her bed.

"Whazzat!" Oliver shouted, sitting bolt upright, knocking Pierce off his shoulder and jolting him awake too. He looked around for danger, realized people were staring at him, then blushed. "Oh, Amera!" He stood and walked over, followed by Pierce.

"I've gotta go," Khadrim said, heading to the door. "I'm picking up Piotr and Bobby from the airport. That girl sent them to Rome."

"Hey, you guys could leave too," Amera hinted so she could get dressed. "I'm kinda gonna be naked in three seconds."

"Bye," the boys said, then booked it.

* * *

Six hours later, the girls sat in Xavier's office. Amera couldn't stay still, she was so excited to finally meet their real father. Danel slumped in her chair, wishing she could be anywhere but there. "Ah, he's arrived," Xavier said. (Damn telepaths, eh?) "I've asked Pierce to escort him here," he added.

A few more unbearable minutes passed before the door opened. When it did, in walked Pierce, followed by…

"Professor, that's Logan," Amera said, eyebrows creased.

"I am aware of that, Amera," Xavier said with a slightly amused smile. "Pierce, Logan, please take a seat."

Pierce looked quizzically at the professor, but followed Logan over to a chair in front of his desk, on the end beside Logan. Amera and Danel looked at him with similar expressions.

"I've got a bit of a long story to tell you…"

* * *

The story began eighteen years ago. Logan was happily living with a young woman by the name of Lily Jones. He then volunteered for a secret government project, and disappeared. Shortly after his leave, Lily discovered she was pregnant with triplets. Still, he never returned. When the babies were born, one of them, the boy, was pronounced still born. This was a lie, as the child was in reality stolen and taken to a secret mutant experimentation facility; the same one that his father had volunteered for. The two girls were taken home and raised normally, and at the age of two they got a new father by the name of Edward Walker, who legally adopted them as his own. Around this time is when the Wolverine project was completed, and the Wolverine escaped. At the age of ten, the girls' mother decided it was time to tell them that Edward was not their biological father, and that their real father had died before they were born.

Now, seventeen years after the births of the children, after the boy had escaped his prison and found the Xavier Institute, they are reunited, a family once more.

* * *

They sat in silence as they tried to digest this. How bizarre, how crazy it sounded. And yet…

"I'm a _father_?" Logan choked.

"I have a family?" Pierce asked, bewildered.

"Logan?" Danel asked in distaste. "Seriously?"

"Pierce is our brother?!" Amera asked, excited once more.

"No." Danel said. "That's not…"

"You're serious?" Pierce asked.

Logan couldn't speak any further.

"Logan is our… I mean, I didn't expect it to be someone I knew, but…" Amera looked at Logan, sitting next to her, and she received that jolt of familiarity once again. "I think I knew it the whole time. I kept feeling this, I don't know, de ja vu thing around both of you, all the time."

"You too?" Danel asked, startled. "I just ignored it."

"I thought it was gas," Pierce said, then looked around the room. "That was a joke. I felt that too!"

Logan grunted. "Me too." He looked at Xavier. "So, now what, Chuck?"

"I would start by getting to know your offspring, Logan," Xavier replied.

"Pierce is our brother!" Amera squealed, then got up and hugged him. Then she hugged Logan, who stiffened up. She immediately backed away. "I'm sorry…" she muttered.

Logan cleared his throat and stood up. "I've got to get some air..." he said, then left the room quickly.

Amera looked back at Xavier with a pained expression. "Let him breathe, Amera. It is a lot to digest after fifteen years of not knowing anything about yourself."

A few minutes later the teens left his office to the sound of a motorcycle revving up and fading away from the mansion.

* * *

Amera lay on her bed sulking for hours before her siblings finally stepped in. "You have no reason to be upset," Danel said as she sat next to her on the bed. "You found our biological father, yeah, but that doesn't mean he has to be a dad to us, you get it?"

Amera said nothing. He'd just ran away. She hadn't expected it to be someone she knew, and she definitely hadn't expected to feel like he had any responsibility for them. But the feeling had cropped up so suddenly, she felt abandoned already.

"Look at it this way - I'm your freaking brother!" Pierce said with a smile. "Logan is Logan, and not even three kids suddenly popping up is going to change him. Scare the shit out of him maybe, but not change him."

"You're right." Amera finally said. "I shouldn't expect anything from him..." She sat up and stared at a poster on her wall. She still felt bad about it, wishing that she could have some sort of parental figure in her life again. "Right..." She looked at Pierce, her best-friend-now-brother. "At least our brother wasn't someone like Piotr. Ew."

* * *

"So, Logan's, like, your dad," Oliver said, his eyebrows furrowed together. "And Amera and Danel are your sisters."

"And you're my sister's ex-boyfriend," Pierce said.

"Yeah, and that's not awkward."

"Uh, yeah."

Oliver stared at his hands for a moment, then seemed to make his mind up about something. He jumped up and ran to the bedroom door, closed it, locked it, and sat back down next to Pierce in the blink of an eye. He was much closer to him now.

"That still weirds me out." Pierce stated.

"No, your sister walking by the wide open door while I'm kissing you would be weird." He then placed his hand on the back of Pierce's neck, bringing their lips together.

A few minutes of passionate kissing later, Oliver was on top of Pierce, resting his head on his shoulder. "Your thoughts are screaming," Pierce observed.

Oliver's already pink face turned a deeper shade. "Sorry."

Pierce chuckled. "Hey, as if you couldn't tell by the tent in my pants, I want the same thing. But..."

"But this homosexual thing is kind of new to us," Oliver finished for him.

"These emotions all together are new to me, gay or not," Pierce replied. "At least you've had sex before."

"Yeah, with your sister. Thanks for reminding me," Oliver said, mocking a disgusted shudder.

"So we're fucked up. So's everyone else in this place."

"Too true."

Pierce ran his fingers through Oliver's longish black and blonde hair. "Maybe... We should wait until we know we're absolutely ready."

"And meanwhile we have two-thirds of the Blue Man Group tucked in our pants."

"Lovely imagery."

"Thank you."

* * *

Danel was pacing the gazebo floor as the sun was setting. Gambit's red eyes followed her, wondering when the real explosion would happen. He bet whenever Logan rolled back in.

"I just don't understand why she even needed to know!" Danel growled.

"She curious, Cher," he replied. "And she not exactly most mature person here. Mebbe she need parent still."

"Logan is NOT our dad!"

Gambit stood up and put his arms around her. "I know. But she need someone. It not been a month yet since..."

Danel looked at him angrily, then her expression softened. "Maybe. But I'm still giving Logan a piece of my mind. I don't want him anywhere near me, save for lessons."

As if on cue, the distant hum of a motorcycle filled the air. "Come on." She stomped away to the mansion's garage, and only a few moments later it was filled with the deafening roar of Logan's bike. Danel marched right up to him. "You're not our dad."

Logan stared at her. "Yeah..."

"I want you to stay away from me."

"Okay."

"Don't talk to me except in lessons."

"No problem."

Danel paused and stopped shouting. "Amera... God, I hate it, but she really needs a parent. She was hoping that you'd take their place in her life, but you ran off like that and she's been upset ever since and-"

"Cher, you ramblin'."

Logan sighed and took off his riding jacket, draping it over his bike. "I came back."

Danel sighed as well. "Yeah. Well... Don't run off on her again. I meant it when I said she needs you."

* * *

"What the hell are the Order people doing? I wanna crack some skulls!" Amera shouted into her headset. She'd decided that to vent her anger she'd initiate a spur-of-the-moment raid on a fourth tier fort in Warhammer Online with her guild mates. Now they were waiting for the other side to return for revenge. She would relish their defeat.

There was a knock at her door. She turned to see Khadrim. Her heart started to beat faster, like when she had seen him that morning in the infirmary. "Hey," she said.

"You doing okay?" he asked as he sat on the foot of her bed. She turned her computer chair to face him. Their knees were only an inch apart. "I mean, the whole 'Logan-Dad' thing?"

She gave a weak smile. "I'll be fine if the stupid Order army ever comes back and I can rip out their spleens."

He gave a startled grin. He leaned towards her, and with a start she realized their faces were only inches away from each other. "Who knew your dark side was that hot?" he said, then stood up and left the room.

Amera's eyes followed him out the door and stared at the place where he'd rounded the corner. What the fuck?

She turned back to her computer with a million mixed up emotions running through her. Only a second after she'd touched her keyboard, there was another knock at the door. She turned her chair to see Logan standing awkwardly in the doorway.

She pulled off her headset and placed it on her desk. The only sound for a long moment was her Alienware computer whirring away behind her. "Oh, just sit down already," she finally said.

He did. "I, uh, had to clear my head. Figure out what to do next."

"I did too," Amera said. "After everything that's happened lately..."

"I want you to know I'm not going to run away again." Logan replied.

"Really?"

"I mean, I know I can't replace the guy who raised you, but maybe I can be like... An uncle or... Something..."

"Just don't be the creepy back woods uncle that touches kids inappropriately," Amera laughed.

"Eh?"

She startled him by hugging him tightly. After a moment, he hugged her back.

A tiny yell issued from her desk. "Amera, they're here! They're here and they're killing us!"

Amera looked at her monitor. Sure enough, their fort had been overrun with High Elves and Dwarves. She didn't feel so murderous anymore, though she did love a good Warhammer battle any time. She spun her chair to the computer and put on her headset. "Sorry Logan, my Guildies need me," she said.

He leaned forward and watched over her shoulder. A moment later her character had been killed and was respawned at what looked like a war camp. "What exactly are you doing?"

"This is the exciting world of Warhammer Online, an MMO, er, Massively Multiplayer Online game. I'm this Dark Elf Blackguard, level 39. Danel's over there, that slutty elf wearing nothing, a Witch Elf. She's a level 35. We're trying to keep a hold on this fort, but it looks like there's four warbands on their side, and only two defending... Ya know, maybe you should just play the damn game."

Logan was wondering why it took to long for them to bust down a freaking door.

"Anyway, there's about 15 of us that play Destruction side here, and three others play Order, the rat bastards." Amera apparently loved this game. "Sakura, Kylia, and Seth the freshman."

A few moments passed while Logan just watched her play. It did look kind of fun... "Hey, play for me a bit, I need to tell Oliver and Pierce to get their asses on the game."

She headed to Oliver's room, but the door was closed and locked. She pounded on the door. "Guys, come on!"

Pierce came to the door and the sounds of Talledega Nights issued forth like a fountain of stupid. "What?"

"We need your help protecting our fort from some Order bastards."

"Yo, Oliver! Laptop!"

"Hurry, we're getting murdered!" Ray yelled from his room across the hall.

"Shut the hell up or I'll murder you!" a disgruntled student shouted from their own room.


	16. Power Trip

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Power Trip**

"Healmehealmehealme!" Logan shouted as his Chosen took massive damage and finally died. "Rezmerezmerezme!"

"Damn it, we can't heal everyone at once!" Pierce yelled back as his Zealot worked on a fallen Squig Herder.

"Hey Logan, how'd you get to be a level 34 so fast? You've only been playing for a few days!" Jubilee asked.

"Two words; coffee and Red Bull," he replied.

"That's four words," Rogue stated.

"So you haven't slept in five days?" Trent asked.

"What about bathing?" Sakura asked.

"Woah, no Order allowed on our Teamspeak channel!" Amera yelled.

"Nope, no sleep, just coffeecoffeecoffee!" Logan said.

"Someone cut him off the caffeine." Bobby said.

"What about bathroom breaks?" Vaughn asked.

"No, don't answer that! Gross!" Kitty squealed.

"I would suggest avoiding any food or beverage containers strewn about my room." Logan answered.

"TMI!" Kylia yelled.

"GET OFF!" Amera shouted.

"Level 40 Bright Wizard!" Thomas yelled. "Level 40 Bright Wizard KILLING ME!"

"We're working on heals! There's only three of us!" Trent yelled back.

"Not exactly good planning on our part," Brian muttered.

"I'll get him!" Danel yelled.

"Me too!" Logan said.

"I can handle it, Logan!"

"Sure you can, you and your 35 Witch Elf."

"As long as I've got a healer backing me-"

"We're busy rezzing people!" Pierce shouted.

"Rez please!" Oliver said.

"Wait your turn!" Trent yelled back.

"Too late, he..." Danel's voice trailed off.

A second later she logged off.

"What the hell?" Oliver said.

"Guys..." Khadrim said. "Read the text box."

Down in the chat box was the list of everyone in the area's deaths and killers. Danel's character, Canttouchthis, had been killed by Pyrojohn.

WTF?

* * *

Amera woke in the middle of the night, knowing she was not alone in the room. Someone else was there in the darkness. An intruder. Not a student.

Just as she was about to yell out, a hand clamped over her mouth and then she had gone somewhere else. It was a disconcerting feeling to be in one place one second and the next be somewhere else. In a moment Amera had recognized her new surroundings as a place she'd never wanted to return to.

Magneto's base.

She struggled away from the person holding her and realized it was the white-haired girl from only a couple of weeks ago, that night at the park. The girl had a cocky grin on her face, even as Amera shifted to her water form and started sliding away as fast as she could.

A second later it was dark, and she felt herself being lifted up. Then the thing she was now held in was covered with a lid. "Not so fast, little puddle," John's voice said through the plastic. Oh great, Amera thought, caught by Tuperware.

Minutes that seemed to go on forever passed as she waited for her fate in the darkness. Finally she felt the bowl set down and she flew out of there the second the lid was removed. She abruptly ran into an invisible wall.

She quickly backtracked and headed the opposite direction. Another invisible wall.

What the hell! She cried in her head. She resigned herself and shifted back to her normal state. Her pale dyed blonde hair flopped in her face as she sat on the floor in her plastic prison. "I thought you'd be more original than this, Magneto," she growled.

"Well, the humans were good for something," he said, stepping into the light in front of her.

"What this time? You want guitar lessons?"

"Your gifts are more extraordinary than I realized the first time we met," he said with a wicked grin. "I witnessed them when I followed Pyro to Central Park."

"And I would use my powers for you... Why?"

"Because if you don't, I'll kill your family," his grin widened. "Starting with your sister, then your brother."

Amera paled. "How do you know about..." Does he know how powerful Pierce is? Surely not, if he's threatening to kill him.

"And Wolverine is your father, what a touching family reunion that must have been!"

"How did you find out about my family?"

Magneto stooped down to her eye level. "Mystique stole files from Stryker. Some of those files were about Wolverine... And his progeny... My dear, who do you think told Charles?"

"You leave my family alone," she stood and growled, rushing the clear plastic wall.

"Tsk, tsk, it looks like you've inherited the Wolverine's temper."

"LEAVE THEM ALONE!"

Something inside her snapped into place. All the training with Xavier she'd ever had was nothing compared to the clarity she had now, the control she knew she had mastered. She could sense, feel, every ounce, every drop, every molecule of moisture and water vapor in the room. She could tell from the concentration of moisture that two other people were in the room, one to the right and one behind her, both in shadows.

Then there was the water bag, Magneto, standing directly in front of her. He took a step back; her eyes had gone completely white. "Don't threaten my family," she said in a low, menacing tone. Her mind reached out and started to grab onto the moisture of Magneto's flesh, pulling it as water vapor through the pores and into the air between them.

Magneto stumbled to his knees, his face contorted between shock and pain. "What the hell are you doing to him!" John yelled from behind her. Oh, so that's who was there.

"Say you'll leave us alone," Amera said in the same growl. The water she was gathering was visible now; tiny orbs sparkled and flew about her, making her look like a terrifyingly beautiful fairy.

"Stop this..." Magneto croaked with his dry mouth and throat. "Please..."

"Stop it!" the white-haired girl yelled and stepped towards him.

"SAY IT!" Amera shouted.

Magneto took a rasping breath. "Go... I... Will... Not... Harm..." He collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Amera gasped and let go; the water that floated around her fell to the floor with a splash like rain drops. She felt exhausted. She leaned against the tank she was in. "Get me home."

The girl stared at her in terror, then nodded. She opened the door and led Amera to a dark corner; a moment later Amera was alone in her dark room.

Her first thought was sleep. Her second was the person who was there the first time her powers had expanded, Khadrim. Third was Xavier. She had to see Xavier.

*I'll be expecting you.* he said in her mind.

* * *

She'd told her friends and family what had happened, and soon everything quieted back down to normal. Xavier had insisted that they continue their training, mostly because he wanted to study her degree of control over her powers. Also she had more physical training, like the other young recruits, Piotr, Rogue, Bobby, and Kitty, which were supposed to be with Scott. Since the death of Jean Grey, however, he rarely taught and spent most of his time in his room. So these lessons were spent with Logan.

A few weeks passed. One Monday morning, the entire school woke to see that the decorating committee, which now included Kylia, it was obvious, had covered the hallways with baby pink streamers, confetti, and hearts.

"I'm gonna be sick," Amera said from her doorway that morning when she saw it.

"It would be an improvement to the decor," Oliver said as he walked by towards their class.

"Friday is Valentine's day, but don't expect us to go easy on your little hormone driven heads," Storm said in their history class.

"Who spit in her oatmeal?" Amera whispered to Rogue.

"She's upset because Kurt bailed last week," she said back.

"Hmm, I didn't even remember he was still around."

"Blame the writer."

"What?"

"So what are you getting for Piotr?" Rogue asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Oh hell, I don't know," Amera sighed. "Another freaking holiday to take money out of our wallets."

"A football?" Oliver offered.

"I think Bobby's cheating on me," Rogue said suddenly.

"Are you nuts? He's in love with you!" Danel said.

"Yeah, but... I can't... You know..."

"Neither can I..." Danel said, turning pink.

"Get the guts to ask Gambit out and then talk to me," Rogue said.

"Sooo... Oliver! Got any girls you plan on giving chocolates to?" Amera asked to get out of the sex zone.

"Girls give the guys chocolate in Japan, and no, I don't." Not a girl anyway.

* * *

"So what are you going to give Pierce?" Danel asked later while she, Gambit, and Oliver were doing homework in her room.

"I don't know, what do guys give to each other when they're in love?" Oliver said, exasperated.

"You love him?" Danel grinned. Oliver's face turned bright red.

"Tell him." Gambit said. "Tell him you love him." Then he turned a slight shade of pink. He turned to Danel, who was sitting in Oliver's computer chair. "Cher, Gambit in love wit' you. Be my girlfriend?"

Danel stared at him in shock, then squealed a "Yes!" in response, flinging herself at him, knocking him into a laying position on the bed. Then she kissed him.

A very disgruntled Danel-Gambit sat up a moment later, sitting up and crossing their arms. "Goddammit," she growled in Gambit's Cajun drawl. Oliver could barely breath for laughing. "Oh, shut up."

* * *

Amera took one last look at herself in her vanity mirror, her mesh top over a long sleeved green shirt and a plaid skirt over ratty jeans with her makeup were perfect. She wondered why he'd told her to dress normally. Obviously there was no schmancy dinner in their future. She'd gotten Piotr the perfect present, but it was for after their date.

Piotr knocked on her door. She opened it with a nervous grin. "You look amazing."

"Thank you," she blushed.

"Happy Valentine's Day," he said, handing her an envelope.

She opened it and pulled out two concert tickets. "My Chemical Romance?" she squealed like- well, like a girl. "Pete, you do love me!"

"Yeah yeah," he said with a laugh. "So lets go already!"

* * *

Danel and Gambit were staying in that night, cuddled together in his bed watching some romantic comedy. They held hands, although hers had her gloves over them.

She let out a sigh when the couple in the movie finally started to share their first passionate kiss. Gambit noticed. "Try, Cher," he said.

Danel looked at him with an upset look on her face. "I can't-"

"Don't," he said, leaning closer to her.

She wanted him so much, it hurt. Her heart felt ready to burst as he leaned closer. His fingers brushed her cheek...

And she was looking at the place she had just been sitting, Gambit's fingers still in the air where her cheek had been. "I told you..." she cried.

* * *

Oliver and Pierce were also watching a movie in Pierce's room. "You're screaming again." Pierce said with a chuckle.

"Sorry," Oliver said with a grumble. He tried to concentrate on the movie.

"Don't be. It's cute." Pierce's heart was fluttering. "You're always wondering about... Us. How to make me happy."

"Yeah, that makes me feel less embarrassed." Oliver said, sitting up. He looked into Pierce's eyes, their crystal blue beauty... He decided to get it out there. "I love you."

Pierce stared at him, then kissed him more passionately than they ever had before. When they finally pulled apart to breathe, Pierce kept kissing Oliver's neck, whispering, "I love you," as he went.

"You're reading my mind," Oliver said as he gasped. Then he pushed Pierce back so he was on top of him. "So what do you say?"

"I say..." Pierce panted, Oliver returning the necking favor. "I say..." he crushed his mouth against Oliver's and tangled his fingers in his hair. Using telekinesis, he unbuttoned Oliver's shirt. "My mind's screaming as loudly as yours right now."

* * *

"Okay, now it's your turn! It's up in my room." Amera said dragging Piotr up the stairs. "Well I know that I can't make you stay, but where's your heart..." she sang as they made their way to the girls' dorms.

"Sit." she said, pointing at her bed. Piotr smiled and obeyed. "Close your eyes."

"Yes, mistress," he joked.

A few moments later, he felt her against him. Her fingers were in his hair. "You can open your eyes now." she said in the sexiest voice she could muster.

She was clothed only in a black lace corset and panties. "Well?" she asked.

Piotr gulped. "Piotr likey," he managed.

She leaned down and kissed him, pushing him back and straddling him. "Piotr really likey..."

* * *

**Wow. **Lots of sex in this chappy. _ I love it! o.O Okay... now please... R&R?


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